Can love break your heart-literally? For Elio, eighth grade fizzes with change. In his body. With his pops, who makes them join a father-son group to talk about puberty and manly stuff and being Mexican. And especially around Camelia, his first girlfriend, whose golden aura distorts his vision. When Elio finds out Camelia has been hanging out with Chava, and that he's been pressuring her into kissing him, Elio's emotions spiral and he craves revenge. Little does he know a fight with Chava will land him in the hospital with a real heart condition, and that Camelia isn't looking for a savior. What will it take for Elio to learn what it really means to be a man, a true friend, and an ally? In poems that radiate color and crackle with comedy and candor, Ultraviolet digs deep into themes of consent, toxic masculinity, and the emotional lives of boys as it challenges stereotypes about how they are socialized to behave. This vibrant, authentic story, centering an irresistible Chicano hero struggling to figure out who he wants to be, is the highly relatable coming of age story every tween and young teen needs. Aida Salazar is an award-winning author and arts activist whose writings for adults and children explore issues of identity and social justice. She is the author of the middle-grade verse novels The Moon Within (International Latino Book Award Winner), Land of the Cranes (Américas Award Winner), the picture book anthology, In the Spirit of a Dream, and the picture book biography Jovita Wore Pants: The Story of a Mexican Freedom Fighter. She is a founding member of Las Musas, a Latinx kidlit debut author collective. Her short story "By the Light of the Moon" was adapted into a ballet production by the Sonoma Conservatory of Dance and is the first Xicana-themed ballet in history. She lives with her family of artists in a teal house in Oakland, California

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