Cover Reveal and Excerpt: Shaking Up the House by Yamile Mendez

Las Musas is thrilled to announce the cover reveal of Yamile Mendez's Shaking Up the House!

But first, a little about Shaking Up the House...

Ingrid and Winnie Lopez have lived there for eight years, but a new family is moving in, and the Lopez girls are determined to combine Ingrid’s comedic timing and Winnie’s quick thinking to give the new First Kids a proper White House welcome.
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Skylar and Zora know a lot of things about the White House—Zora loves history, and Skylar’s thrilled to begin her new A-list lifestyle. What the sisters don’t know is that incoming presidents’ families are often pranked by the folks they’re replacing, and Ingrid and Winnie take that tradition very seriously. 
When what is meant to be a friendly goof sets off an epic prank war, though, it’s only a matter of time before things spiral out of control. Can the four girls call a truce before an innocent trick sparks an international incident? Or will their battle go down in American history? 

Book cover illustrator: Kat Fajardo Designer: Christopher Kwon

From acclaimed author Yamile Saied Mendez comes a laugh-a-minute friendship story full of hijinks, misunderstandings, and loads of glitter.

Coming January 5, 2021! Pre-order now!

And now, read an excerpt...

Winnie didn’t think it all the way through.

Typical Winnie.

But to be fair, this morning, there was no one around to tell her not to do it, for once. A legit miracle in this house that was always teeming with people busy like ants at a picnic. Besides, the floors were freshly waxed, and best of all, she was wearing soft, fluffy socks.

Perfect combination.

All the canned energy of having to sit properly through another photo op made her skin crawl. And since she couldn’t hide at Blair House, what better way to release the tension than a mini adventure on her way to the North Lawn?

The first time her family had received the official White House Christmas tree, she’d been so excited she’d cried. She’d also only been four. Eight years of the same thing later (standing in the cold, smiling at the cameras, and putting on her Perfect First Daughter face), the excitement of another holiday season under the spotlight had lost its shine. Still, she had to do what she had to do.

A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that no Secret Service agents were camouflaged against the flowery wallpaper or behind a curtain in the solarium.

Faintly, she remembered Mami’s words from the other day: “Winnie, why are you always listening to the voice of mischief instead of the voice of reason?”

Even now she didn’t have an answer. Instead, she laughed and broke into a run to get momentum.
With a wild “Woo-hoo,” she pushed off the banister and slid down down the ramp.

She closed her eyes, as if that could quiet the critical voices in her head and vanish the judgy eyes watching her from the portraits on the wall. She wasn’t going to miss them or this house. She’d never say so out loud, though. If people knew her true feelings, they would call her spoiled, entitled, ungrateful.

The executive mansion, the president’s palace, the People’s House (as Papi called it) . . . the White House featured a hundred and thirty-five rooms, a florist, a chocolatier, a bowling alley, a private theater, and a million other perks. What else could a kid want?

But people didn’t understand. Who’d want to grow up in a museum?

Under the spotlight, Winnie felt like one of the pandas at the National Zoo. She was grateful about all the comforts, and especially the chocolate lava cake Chef Jean-Paul made when Winnie had a particularly bad day. But with the perks came the pitfalls.

She couldn’t even open a window without creating a scene or ruining the vacations of innocent tourists who’d only wanted a glimpse of one of the most iconic residences in the world.

Winnie hadn’t seen photos of the new house in California yet, but Tía Suz had assured her it had floor-to-ceiling windows to take advantage of the golden sunshine in the afternoons, and the sounds of singing birds and the waves of the ocean. Winnie was holding on to that promise. She couldn’t wait to leave the White House forever.

All these thoughts blurred through her mind in the five seconds her adventure lasted.

Next thing she knew, she had crashed head-on into someone. Winnie bounced back and landed on her bottom.

“What in the world?” the other person exclaimed.
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The other person was none other than Paloma López, J.D., the first lady of the United States (FLOTUS for short), code name Pinnacle. In other words, her mom.