Fast paced, dealing with friendship, family, immigration, and alien robots! LOVED this new one! After finding a strange glowing ball in her parents old garage space, Mimi is confused! She can fix anything. She and her father spent many weekends tinkering and fixing old technology; with her friends, her family, her community, along with a little robot, can she put it all back together again?

I recieved a free eARC of this book. Thank you for the opportunity to read it.

Mimi can fix phones and other small appliances, but she can't fix her family. Not since her father was deported to the Dominican Republic. She needs money for a lawyer to clear her mother's status, to bring her father back, maybe even to get an apartment and their shop back. She's pulled away from her friends, her cousin, because, what might happen to them next?

Then, two things happen. The first is a robotics competition. The top prize is $50,000-enough to make a dent in Mimi's needs, so she and her friends start work. The second is Dot-E. A young alien robot who needs to find HER lost family--and protection from the military scientists trying to find her. Together, the four friends set out to do both.

This is a wonderful sci-fi kids book, with a well earned if not unexpected finish that also leads to opportunities to discuss immigration and the struggles faced by immigrants in getting legal residency in the US. I think many kids will love this book..

Mimi Perez is only twelve, but she learned how to fix electronics at her father’s knee. When an alien robot crashes into her family’s former e-repair shop, Mimi knows she has to help. At the same time, she has to deal with broken friendships, her father’s deportation and federal agents. A robotics contest might just help with all those things. She’s a strong and wonderful girl, with a big heart, a wonderful family that includes her mother, her neighbors and everyone on the block in Brooklyn. A really enjoyable and fun read.
Thank you to NetGalley and Disney Publishing Worldwide for this DRC.
#PTheGirlandtheRobot #NetGalley