“I am supposed to be someone. Someday … That’s what my teachers keep telling me. / My potential is something they like to throw in my face … I could be someone if I really wanted to? / So, who do they think I am now?” Teenage Sarai lives with her mom and older sister, Estrella, in Bushwick in the 1990s. She is proudly Puerto Rican and joyfully celebrates her identity even as she wonders if she can claim it when she’s never been to the island. The struggle to keep a roof over their heads and food in their bellies has left their mom bitter and angry, but the sisters love and support each other. When their family finally gets an apartment they can stay in for awhile, it’s in a broken down building where drug dealing is a daily occurrence. Sarai dreams of getting out of Bushwick, a place the police and media see as problematic and violent, but also knows there’s so much more to Bushwick beyond these stereotypes, and that the place is part of her in many good ways. Sarai is 13 when the novel opens; 15 and a mother by story’s end, determined to love her daughter the way she was never loved, determined to love herself, and determined to embrace who she is and where she comes from as the starting point for her dreams. This smart, stunning debut with its searing social observation and commentary is grounded in Sarai’s raw, exquisite voice. (Age 13 and older)

"The energy. The clarity. The beauty. Elisabet Velasquez brings it all. . . . Her voice is FIRE!"—NYT bestselling and award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson

An unforgettable, torrential, and hopeful debut young adult novel-in-verse that redefines what it means to "make it,” for readers of Nicholasa Mohr and Elizabeth Acevedo.

Sarai is a first-generation Puerto Rican question asker who can see with clarity the truth, pain, and beauty of the world both inside and outside her Bushwick apartment. Together with her older sister, Estrella, she navigates the strain of family traumas and the systemic pressures of toxic masculinity and housing insecurity in a rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn. Sarai questions the society around her, her Boricua identity, and the life she lives with determination and an open heart, learning to celebrate herself in a way that she has long been denied.

When We Make It is a love letter to anyone who was taught to believe that they would not make it. To those who feel their emotions before they can name them. To those who still may not have all the language but they have their story. Velasquez’ debut novel is sure to leave an indelible mark on all who read it.