Book Cover Reveal for It's All or Nothing, Vale by Andrea Beatriz Arango
en garde! 🤺
As we read through Out of Your League it occurred to me that my best friend,
, was publishing a book about a girl in sports— in this case it’s fencing. She agreed to give me a quick interview about her upcoming book, It’s All or Nothing, Vale. We talk about her inspiration, her sister, and her hula hooping days.Read on to see the cover and an excerpt!
Interview with Andrea Beatriz Arango
Can you tell us a little bit about your upcoming middle grade novel, It’s All or Nothing, Vale?
Yes! How exciting. You’re my very first Vale interview.
It’s All Or Nothing, Vale is about a Puerto Rican competitive fencer named Valentina. When the book begins, we learn that she had an accident a few months back, and is just now gearing up to make a big splashy return to her gym, Fencing Paradise, where she is a bit of a star. That return doesn’t go quite as she envisioned, which sends Vale on a journey of self-discovery as she tries to figure out who non-champion Valentina even is.
What was your inspiration for this story? Did you have to research?
My sister was actually a fencing champion as a teen! She competed both nationally and internationally on Puerto Rico’s youth team. And while she never had as big of an injury as Vale’s, there definitely came a time in her life (when she headed off to college) in which she had to decide what fencing meant to her, and whether she wanted it to be something she loved or something she did as a competitive career.
So of course when I decided I wanted to try my hand at something different (a sports book? from moi?) I knew it had to be fencing.
Despite my sister competing at that level, however, I know far less about fencing than I should, haha. So for the book, I interviewed her extensively, but also interviewed a friend’s teenager, and the coach at my local fencing gym, where I got to observe practices too. I also read every contemporary kidlit fencing book I could get my hands on. There aren’t that many, LOL, so if you need recs, I particularly enjoyed the YA Fence series by C.S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad, the middle grade novel Black Brother Black Brother by Jewell Parker Rhodes, and the middle grade graphic Duel by Jessixa and Aaron Bagley.
Every middle grade you’ve written so far has a message that is important for young readers. In Iveliz Explains it All it was about mental health, in Something Like Home it was about foster care. What would you say is the message you’re trying to give young readers with It’s All or Nothing, Vale?
You’re right, each of my books does center a specific topic which I think needs to be talked about with less shame. For Vale, I suppose it might specifically be the difficulty of living with chronic pain, but I also think it’s the broader notion that we as adults seem to instill in kids more and more each day - that idea that they need to be good and perfect at everything they do, be it school, or sports, or hobbies, or they won’t be able to be successful in life. That it’s all or nothing, all the time.
In my previous books, the kids feel alone because their adults, while well-intentioned, simply aren’t listening to them and their needs. Valentina and her family are no exception.
In book club we just read an anthology about girls in sports called Out of Your League. How do you feel about sports in general, and girls in sports specifically?
While I’m not a huge sports fan myself, I think we’re at a great time for women’s sports right now and it’s trickling down into publishing. I’ve been seeing more and more sports books with girl main characters coming out, and it makes me happy that all the athletic readers (yes, they exist!) can find and enjoy amazing books that feature girls like them playing their preferred sport.
That’s honestly another big reason I wanted to write a fencing book with a Puerto Rican main character! Latina fencers do exist, even if they’re not prominent in media.
I loved the Out of Your League collection Queerthology read last month precisely because it featured such a wide variety of sports, many of which I haven’t seen in books before (hell yeah, girl power-lifters). And while I think more diversity is needed, we’re headed down a good path. I’m happy to be able to contribute to the sporty canon.
Did you play any sports as a child and/or as an adult?
Growing up, my sister and brother both did a lot of different sports (baseball, volleyball, basketball, soccer, fencing, karate, etc.), but I was too much of an anxious introvert to really thrive in contact sports. I did swim for my high school team, but mostly as an excuse to jump in the pool with my best friend every day (she was the team champion, haha). Which is not to say I didn’t enjoy swimming competitively, I did, but I understood my role in the team - an extra body for relays, or a sub when people were out but we needed participation points. I had no drive to be the best. I just wanted to swim.
As an adult I did pick up trick hula hooping and loved it for several years, haha, but again, I just did it for myself.
Vale and I may have a lot in common in terms of our perfectionism and fear of failure, but I am nowhere near as sporty or driven as her.
What is your favorite thing about the cover for It’s All or Nothing, Vale? Does it match what you were imagining for the cover as you were writing?
When I first imagined the cover, I admit I was imagining it with both Valentina and Myrka (Vale’s rival/crush) on it. I think mostly because I was excited that this was both my first crush book and my first queer book. However, I do think my cover designer made the right choice, because ultimately, although the Myrka rivalry is a big plot point, the book itself is moreso focused on Vale’s inner journey, and I think this cover reflects that beautifully. I must admit, it’s my favorite book cover yet.
Anything else you’d like to share?
Valentina’s fencing jacket is actually full of doodles of things that appear in the book! So if you want more teasers, look there <3
Cover Reveal
A poignant novel in verse where, after a life-changing accident, one girl finds her way back to her life’s passion. From the Newbery Honor Award-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All.
All these months of staring at the wall?
All these months of feeling weak?
It’s ending—
I’m going back to fencing.
And then it’ll be
like nothing ever happened.
No one knows hard work and dedication like Valentina Camacho. And Vale’s thing is fencing. She’s the top athlete at her fencing gym. Or she was . . . until the accident.
After months away, Vale is finally cleared to fence again, but it’s much harder than before. Her body doesn’t move the way it used to, and worst of all is the new number one: Myrka. When she sweeps Vale aside with her perfect form and easy smile, Vale just can’t accept that. But the harder Vale fights to catch up, the more she realizes her injury isn’t the only thing holding her back. If she can’t leave her accident in the past, then what does she have to look forward to?
In this moving novel from the Newbery Honor-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All, one girl finds her way back to her life’s passion and discovers that the sum of a person’s achievements doesn’t amount to the whole of them.
Excerpt
Note that this is a DRAFT and not the final version that will be published. Nobody has permission to quote or use this poem in any way other than sharing this newsletter.
Back to SchoolÂ
I wake up to my pink cane
propped up against the dresser—
a spot where I know
   I didn’t leave it
before going to bed.
Mami put it there while I slept,
   I’m positive,
as if waking up and seeing it
would logically make me grab it,
as if its nearness to my
carefully picked out
   first-day-of-school outfit
would make it the natural accessory
for my first day back.
It doesn’t matter how many times I tell her
that I don’t want it,
she doesn’t listen—
always going on and on
   with her metaphors
   and cutesy phrases
insisting my cane is inspirational
and lecturing me on how using it
   is just like someone using glasses
and so I shouldn’t be ashamed.
But it’s not that I’m ashamed— Â
it’s that I’m confused.
Nervous of what everyone at school will say
if I come to class with a cane some days
but not others,
like I must be hiding a secret,
like I did virtual school
   just for fun,
like whatever they heard about me,
   about my accident,
   about my surgeries,
has to be a lie
because the Valentina in front of them
   doesn’t look injured,
   is rejoining her fencing gym this week ,
because
the seventh-grade Valentina in front of them?
With her Dutch braids,
frowning face,
calendar counting down the days?
She looks exactly like the
tough
champion
athlete
   she’s always been.
🤺
Andrea Beatriz Arango is the author of Newbery Honor Book Iveliz Explains It All and Pura Belpré Honor Book Something Like Home. She was born and raised in Puerto Rico, and is a former public school teacher with almost a decade of teaching experience. Andrea now writes the types of children’s books she wishes students had more access to. She balances her life in New Orleans with trips home to see her family and eat lots of tostones de pana. When she’s not busy writing, you can find her enjoying nature in the nearest forest or body of water.
Preorder It’s All or Nothing, Vale by Andrea Beatriz Arango at your favorite book retailer here!
Thanks for the lovely convo!! 😊