"What Can't Wait" by Ashley Hope Pérez follows the story of a high school girl named Mariana who navigates the complexities of family, love, and identity in a vibrant yet challenging environment. Living in a predominantly Latino neighborhood, Mariana grapples with her dreams of attending a prestigious college while dealing with her family's expectations and the pressures of life in her community. As she faces personal and social challenges, Mariana learns about resilience, the importance of friendships, and the strength to pursue her aspirations. The novel beautifully explores themes of culture, belonging, and the pursuit of one’s dreams amidst adversity. [Generated by language model - please report any problems].

This book is the winner of numerous awards

This book is aimed at children at US 9th grade-12th grade.

This book has been graded for interest at 14-18 years.

There are 240 pages in this book.

It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.

This book was published in 2014 by Carolrhoda Lab (R) .