No American Dream

American Street by Ibi Zoboi 

New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2017]

324 p. ; 22 cm. 

American Street is a super book. I'm glad to see it got a lot of recognition - starred reviews and a finalist for the National Book Award. The book is the story of Fabiola, high school aged young woman who was born in the US, raised in Haiti and has returned to the US with her mother so they can rejoin the mother's sister and her three girls in Detroit. Of course, nothing goes smoothly: the mother (not a US citizen) is detained at the NYC airport by ICE while Fabiola is sent on to Detroit and tries to fit in to her aunt's family - a family full of love - but also serious troubles (debts, drug dealing, a dead father, and a crumbling neighborhood). 

The novel follows Fabiola as she tries to navigate the huge, strange country that is the United States, the dicey/lively city of Detroit, and the complicated relationships of her three cousins, who both form a formidable front, though each young woman has a striking and different personality.  

There are many sources of dramatic tension in the novel. Fabiola desperately wants to get her Mom out of ICE detention, she also falls hard in love, and she has to prove herself to her streetwise cousins, etc. In her desperation to get help for her mother, she makes the mistake of becoming an informant to a narcotics detective and things get VERY complicated and VERY dangerous. 

I won't give away the twists and turns of the plot, but after the first chapter things get very interesting. Readers are also easily introduced to the worldview of vodou through the perspective of Fabiola who believes in it and sees the world through that lens - to the point where there is a blurred boundary between the real and the magical/spiritual in many scenes.  In a lesser writer these could be a real weakness, but in this novel they add to its richness.

As you can tell, I'll definitely be recommending this book to readers.

Nothing About Everything

Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay

New York : Kokila, [2019]

323 p. : maps ; 22 cm. 

I know I ordered this book for the strong reviews it received, but what finally made me grab it off the shelf to look at one more time is the captivating cover.  So, yes, covers matter! But there is so much more to this book.  I think it is one of the best YA books I have read in a long time.

So what makes me hold this book such high regard? I think what I love is that it manages to do so many things at once and never condescends.  What is Patron Saints of Nothing about?  So many things: letting a friendship drop, family secrets, political violence, drug trafficking, the immigrant connecting with the home country, American naivete, the complexities of the truth, and growing up. Let me offer an example.

In the middle of the novel, the main character, high school senior Jay confronts his reactionary, violent uncle about the situation in the Philippines. The confrontation between them rings so true.  The uncle who knows so much more about the Philippines than Jay, cuts him down to size as nothing but a spoiled, arrogant American coming back to the country he left as a baby.  Jay knows the moral truth he is committed to, but is no match against the harsh and cynical adult and loses that argument.  I've never read such a well conveyed interchange that captures this dynamic. 

There is so much more.  The novel is a coming of age novel, it's a murder mystery, it's a family conflict drama, it's a bit of a romance - and yet it manages to weave all these strands together without feeling forced.  

I will recommend this book to our students and hope I can find someone who likes it as much as I did.

  

Who's Messed Up?

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe

New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2018.

372 p. ; 22 cm.      

I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy this book when I first started it.  It has that YA "thing" of a main character who is so witty and facile with banter and snark that he makes Holden Caulfield look like Greg Brady after a nap. But the book got some favorable reviews and even won a prize from YALSA - the prestigious Morris Award (2020) for debut YA novel. 

Funny thing about this book, though, is that it has a way of growing on you.  The whole set-up of a Haitian-Canadian teen moving to Austin, TX for his junior year of high school has a lot of potential.  As Canada (the nickname Austonians gift Norris with) adjusts to the hellish heat and big strangeness of Texas, USA he starts to pick up some friends, a job, and even a smart, artsy girlfriend.  The relationships really make this novel work.  And some striking twists and turns in friendship and romance help Norris to see that maybe his condescension says something about his own jerkishness, not just everyone else's.  I also like how issues of diversity, multiculturalism, and racism are woven naturally into the story and handles with a light, but substantive touch. 

I couldn't help but like this book, it's clever, funny, and a bit overdone at times, but ultimately it has a lot of heart.  I'd definitely recommend it to a student.

Love Documented

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
New York : Delacorte Press, [2016]
348 p. ; 22 cm.

This book was a delight.  Two high school seniors - who couldn't be much more different - start the day total strangers, and end up by the evening deeply in love.  They have to overcome a world of differences to get there: Natasha is an undocumented Jamaican immigrant facing immediate deportation, and Daniel is as first generation Korean American who is up against his parents' plans for him to get into Yale, be a doctor, and partner up with a "good Korean girl." 

Daniel aspires to be a poet, and lives by the values of idealism, hopes, and dreams.  Natasha is a lover of science and rational decisions.  Their paths cross one morning in NYC as Daniel heads for a crucial Yale entrance interview and Natasha pursues legal aid to stave off her deportation.

It seems almost silly to describe the plot, but it really works.  In spite of a few improbable plot devices (reminded me a little of Thomas Hardy's narrative tricks!) the development of the relationship between the characters is believable and very sweet.  By the end of the book the reader can't help but be rooting for these two fine human beings.

As I read The Sun is Also a Star, I thought of a lovely, romantic movie that has a similar one day of falling in love and a similar feel - Before Sunrise., which is interesting in that The Sun is Also a Star was apparently made into a movie, but one which did not share the critical acclaim of Before Sunrise.   Don't let that keep you away from this lovely little jewel of a book.