An incredibly heartfelt depiction of immigrants and refugees in a land full of uncertainty.
Picking up a week after the grueling journey chronicled in The Only Road (2016), Diaz’s profound sequel finds 12-year-old Jaime Rivera and his cousin Ángela adjusting to life in El Norte.
Jaime doesn’t know English too well, and his first days at school result in an unfortunate bathroom accident, mocking giggles from his classmates, and snide comments from the class bully, Diego. To Jaime’s horror, Ángela seems to have changed overnight, making new friends with ease, switching to English almost exclusively, and acting aloof about their recent odyssey. Meanwhile, the specter of deportation looms endlessly, and terrible news from Guatemala involving Abuela and the Alphas erases any hope of returning to their village any time soon. Like its predecessor, this timely follow-up addresses the threats that immigrants and refugees face daily in El Norte, where “talk of a massive wall and deporting all of us” continues unabated. Diaz keeps the intimate third-person narration intact as she skillfully explores Jaime’s new life in New Mexico, although the novel’s noble objectives often deny any meaningful character development. Fortunately, well-sketched friends and family offer Jaime support in unexpected ways, including Sean, a deaf, white schoolmate who incites a pleasant subplot, and the gentle Don Vicente, an old Mexican cowboy whose relationship with Jaime forms the heart of the novel.
An incredibly heartfelt depiction of immigrants and refugees in a land full of uncertainty. (author’s note, references, further reading, glossary) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5344-1455-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
Timely and pointed.
A Chinese girl moves to America to be reunited with her family.
When she was 5, Lina’s parents and baby sister left her in Beijing with her grandmother. Now she arrives in Southern California as a 10-year-old stranger to her own family. And what of the American dream? Her scientist father toils (sans green card) for a villainous, bigoted organic farmer, while her mother, unemployed since the pandemic put the nail salon where she worked out of business, makes bath bombs to sell online. They live in a one-bedroom apartment whose back rent is due in six weeks. Why isn’t Lina in any of the pictures displayed in their home? School is worse. Bullied by mean girls for her English, she vows never to speak again. But with the help of her ELL teacher, the school librarian, and a new friend, Lina begins to find her confidence and her voice through reading. Yang covers a lot of ground, from immigrant experiences and socio-economic inequities to climate change and middle school angst. The plotline that really stands out, however, is when Lina discovers that books can comfort the struggling, link people together, and create changes both internal and external. This theme propels the action through the book’s satisfying climax when she must decide whether to use her voice to stop a book that she loves from being banned in her classroom.
Timely and pointed. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-5344-8833-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2022
Remarkable.
A “half-Chinese and half-white” girl finds her place in a Little House–inspired fictional settler town.
After the death of her Chinese mother, Hanna, an aspiring dressmaker, and her White father seek a fresh start in Dakota Territory. It’s 1880, and they endure challenges similar to those faced by the Ingallses and so many others: dreary travel through unfamiliar lands, the struggle to protect food stores from nature, and the risky uncertainty of establishing a livelihood in a new place. Fans of the Little House books will find many of the small satisfactions of Laura’s stories—the mouthwatering descriptions of victuals, the attention to smart building construction, the glorious details of pleats and poplins—here in abundance. Park brings new depth to these well-trodden tales, though, as she renders visible both the xenophobia of the town’s White residents, which ranges in expression from microaggressions to full-out assault, and Hanna’s fight to overcome it with empathy and dignity. Hanna’s encounters with women of the nearby Ihanktonwan community are a treat; they hint at the whole world beyond a White settler perspective, a world all children deserve to learn about. A deeply personal author’s note about the story’s inspiration may leave readers wishing for additional resources for further study and more clarity about her use of Lakota/Dakota. While the cover art unfortunately evokes none of the richness of the text and instead insinuates insidious stereotypes, readers who sink into the pages behind it will be rewarded.
Remarkable. (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-328-78150-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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