Tangled Roots & Wild Dreams
Written by Angela Velez
Published by HarperCollins
Ezzie Ramos is a champion secret keeper. Her brilliant-professor mami and nosy abuelita don’t know about her daily ritual (wandering the art museum), her college applications (hopelessly blank), or her summer plans (avoiding the dreaded f-word, a.k.a. her future, at all costs).
Ezzie’s biggest secret? She’s interning at Sprout, the urban garden she’s stunned to discover her father founded weeks before his death. All she knows about Papi begins and ends with his dazzling scientific research legacy—but what if he dreamed of a different path too?
With seven weeks to uncover who Papi really was, Ezzie must chase down every lead, even if it means tangling with Sprout’s star volunteer, Gabe McCalister, who couldn’t be more off-limits—or distractingly cute. But as Ezzie begins to put down roots at Sprout, she learns that secrets, like seeds, have a way of growing toward the light. . . .
Primary ISBN: 9780063071889
Publication Date: June 2026
Available As: Hardcover, Audiobook, eBook
Young Adult, Age 13 or older
Community Represented: Korean/Korean American, Mexican/Mexican American, Peruvian/Peruvian American
Themes: Coming of Age, Cross-Group Dating, Cross-Group Friendship, Cultural Empowerment, Cultural Empowerment & Joy: Family, Cultural Empowerment & Joy: Identity, Family Relationship: Grandparents, Family Relationship: Parents, Format: Audiobook, Genre: Romance, Identity: Exploration, Identity: Multilingual, Multilingual: Spanish Featured Words, Own Voices/Lived Experience, STEM, Trauma & Healing, Trauma & Healing: Death of Family or Friend
Setting: United States (Pittsburgh PA)
Character's Place in the Immigration Journey: 1st Generation
Book Creator(s) Connection to the Community Represented: Own Voices/Lived Experience
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