When best friends Dominic, Loop, and Z stumble upon Conjuring Cats, a new magic shop in town, they know just how they'll spend their summer vacation -- mastering cool tricks so they can gain access to The Vault, a keyholders-only back room that is bound to hold all kinds of secrets! And once they get in, they set their sights even higher: the Texas Association of Magicians' amateur close-up competition at the end of the summer.

The problem is, the trip to the competition is expensive, and it's money that each boy's family just doesn't have. Plus, the shop owners' daughter Ariel -- an all-too-confident girl their age who just so happens to be last year's winner -- will do anything to make sure the boys don't come out on top. Will they make it to the competition? And if so, at what cost?

Diana Lopez's heartwarming, kid-friendly middle grade stories featuring dynamic Latino characters have made her a house favorite. Nothing Up My Sleeve's themes of friendship, family dynamics, and competition will strongly relate with young readers, and Diana's obvious love for the intricacies of real tricks and magicians through history add a thrilling extra layer.

This book has been graded for interest at 12+ years.

There are 400 pages in this book. This book was published 2016 by Little, Brown & Company .

Diana Lopez is a native of Corpus Christi, Texas. Her adult novel, Sofia's Saints , was published by Bilingual Review Press in 2002, and she is a contributing author to Hecho en Tejas: An Anthology of Texas Mexican Literature . Diana now teaches English at the University of Houston in Victoria, Texas.