Cartaya, Pablo.
THE EPIC FAIL OF ARTURO ZAMORA
New York : Viking, 2017
IL 5-8, RL 5.7
ISBN: 978-1101997239

(3 booktalks)

Booktalk #1

Most summers Arturo Zamora spends hanging out with his friends, relaxing and occasionally working in his family’s neighborhood Cuban restaurant. This summer is different...very different. First Arturo reconnects with a girl from his past. She has grown into a cute, funny, young lady. His stomach always gets nervous when she is near. Arturo also gets new responsibilities at the restaurant. His summer really takes a turn when a land developer threatens the family’s restaurant with a plan to gentrify the neighborhood. Arturo must save his neighborhood, save his family’s business and get the girl. What could possibly go wrong?   (Vermont DCF Award nominee, 2018-2019)

Booktalk #2

Arturo is a 13-year-old spending the summer in his Miami neighborhood. All of a sudden, he has to deal with many new conflicts all at the same time! Will he get the girl? Figure out his grandfather’s old letters? Help save the neighborhood from the villainous Wilfrido Pipo? Help save the family business? Or will he epically fail at everything?  ( Prepared by: Alana Lewis, Deer Park Middle, alana_lewis@charleston.k12.sc.us for South Carolina Book Award)

Booktalk #3

The summer of his 13th year Arturo Zamora is called upon to be a hero, to save his family’s restaurant, actually his entire Miami neighborhood, when both are threatened with destruction from a shady land developer. That's a tall order (excuse the restaurant pun) for a junior dishwasher, but this developer won’t know what hit him. As Arturo plots with his new neighbor Carmen, together they discover how the bonds of family, poetry and standing up for what you believe in are the perfect recipe for success or an epic fail. (Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award 2020-2021)