American Road Trip: A YA Audio Book Review and Giveaway

Congratulations to Danielle Hammelef who won BREAD FOR WORDS from last week's blog. A word to all of those who also want to win books. Sometimes I run "specials." If you share my post on social media, you'll earn extra chances. That's why Danielle's library is growing. Look for these specials so yours can too!

*****

I'm trying to figure out a good lead-in sentence for American Road Trip by Patrick Flores-Scott. But all I can think to say is, "This is a very good book that young adults should read." Totally unoriginal and unimaginative, but there's my opinion in a nutshell. I listened to this audio book, courtesy of Recorded Books. The narrator, Luis Moreno, portrayed the character's voices authentically. Don't believe me? Listen to this audio clip. 

REVIEW

Teodora ("T") Avila's family is falling apart. Ever since his oldest brother, Manuel, left for the Iraq War, (with his father's blessing, but not his mother's) nothing has been right. His parents lose their jobs and only his mother finds another one. Teodora's older sister Xochitl (pronounced Soe-cheel and nicknamed Xoch) is a fantastic singer who wants to hold their family together. Each family member thinks that when Manny comes back, everything will be better.

But, Manny comes home and it is clear that his presence is not the family medicine everyone hoped for. In fact, he has PTSD, refuses treatment, and turns to drugs and alcohol. T's life is miserable and he's close to flunking out his junior year. When he sees an old friend, Wendy, at the University of Washington ("U-Dub"), he tries to impress her by saying he plans to attend there. 

Their budding romance (mostly through texts) inspires T to hit the books. He is accepted into the AVID program, and gets a job to pay for tutoring. But when Manny punches through a wall into T's bedroom, T escapes to his friend's house. "I'm done hoping for us, but not for me." 

Xoch comes up with a plan. Under the pretense of helping Manny reconnect to good memories, she drives her brothers to see their maternal grandmother. Except T doesn't realize this is the beginning of a long road trip. Manny has his ups and downs, Xoch's old car breaks down several time, and T is furious that his summer plans to prepare for his senior year are ruined. The theme of lying to protect oneself or to get help for someone you love permeates the book.

Along the way, T learns family history that sheds light on his parents, sees Wendy and sparks fly, goes to a funeral for a distant cousin, hears of Manny's suicide attempt, and realizes how messed-up his brother is--and how he truly needs to help him. 

Their road trip ends at Tio Ed's green chile farm in New Mexico. Tio Ed, a Vietnam veteran, understands what Manny is going through and gets him help from the VA and support from other local veterans. 

Wendy ends up at the farm as T's tutor. Although there is clear sexual attraction, they discuss the slippery slope of sex and agree to be intentional; T follows through on his promise to "be a gentleman." They burn off sexual tension building a chile stand together and T discovers a passion for architecture. 

Readers may object to T's occasional offensive language and the references to sex. I was impressed by their mutual decision to exercise restraint and wish other young adult books would follow this example.  

The whole time he and Wendy are together, T fights his fear of failing and showing his "stupid self" to Wendy. When she does find out he lied to her back at U-Dub, he has a price to pay. 

It turns out that everyone has a price to pay. Manny paid a enormous price in Iraq. Xoch decides to make a huge sacrifice for their family which inspires T to make a difficult decision. Although T’s transformation is most obvious, each member of the Avula family has a journey of their own. Who is the hero or heroine? Read the story and decide for yourself. 

Teachers: Click here for an educator's guide.

GIVEAWAY

Leave me a comment by February 8 if you're interested in entering this giveaway. Remember! Leave me your email address if you are new to my blog. 

For Black Girls Like Me: A Review and a Giveaway

In 2018 I read Nancy Johnson's article on Writer Unboxed encouraging writers to figure out what their novel's big question is. I saved it on my desktop and went back to it several times as I wrote Half-Truths. That question is in my mind and shaping the sequel.

So, it's no coincidence that after I finished reading For Black Girls Like Me (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2019) by Mariama J. Lockington one of my thoughts was, "What is the big question this book answers?"

I don't know if Ms. Lockington has this in her mind when she wrote this middle grade book, but my question for this book would be, "What does a black girl experience who was adopted into a white family and never knew her birth mother?"

REVIEW

Using free verse poetry and poetic prose, the novel provides powerful insight into eleven-year-old Makeda June Kirkland's reality. Readers are immersed into the life of a girl whose hippie mother named her after an Ethiopian girl who died in a famine. Makeda's response: "I like Keda for short. I am not a dead girl." (p. 8)

The book opens with Keda, her older sister Eve, and her used-to-be-concert-violinist mother driving across country to New Mexico to meet their father who has taken a job as the principal cellist in the New Mexico Symphony. "Mama is up front with one hand on the wheel. Her violin in the passenger seat. The neck tipped down like a bottle being emptied into the seat." (p.3) This image poetically foreshadows  Mrs. Kirkland's battles.

Music, according to their father, is their legacy. Forced to play piano, but loving singing more, Keda wonders if she sounds like gibberish when she sings since her father outlaws the gibberish of  rap, hip-hop, and R and B. Keda's constant question is, "Where do I belong?" 

I love Ella and Billie Holiday and oh I just can't get enough of Nina Simone. These women sing and I feel like they are talking to me. Like we are speaking the same language. Like they know what it is to feel loved and lonely all at the same time. (p. 18) 

Although Keda realizes her parents love her, that knowledge doesn't stop her from wondering about her birth mother. "Even though these days I can't help feeling like I'll never be whole. That somewhere out there is a woman with my face. Another mother. Missing me the way I miss her." (p. 33)

Keda's voice is in the songs she makes up. 

.... I try to imitate different instruments with the sound of my voice. I don't sing any real words. I just open myself to the sounds and sing what I feel. I close my eyes and sway back and forth. I like to think about notes as colors and shapes. I like to swish the notes around in my mouth. Taste them on my tongue. Then I try to fill the whole world with my breath. With my sound.

In Albuquerque, Keda misses her best friend Lena (who is Haitian and was adopted by a white family) and has problems at her new school. Although Keda is used to people staring at her parents and then at her, trying to figure out where she came from, this time it is particularly painful. A teacher assumes she is from Africa, a fellow sixth grader calls her the N-word, and Keda's fragile new world breaks apart.  

A brief stint of homeschooling is followed by a disastrous summer. Her father goes on tour, her mother pulls away from the girls and into her own world, and Keda stops hearing from Lena. In a manic turn of events, her mother suddenly decides to take the girls on a trip to Colorado which ends in her attempted suicide--for which Keda blames herself. 

The end of the book is a symphony of clashes between the sisters that climax with new empathy and forgiveness. The ways in which the family pulls together after Mrs. Kirkland's hospitalization are painful, tentative, and yet authentic. 

I loved one of the final scenes when Keda's mother's violin-playing invades Keda's dream--and she realizes that it's not a dream. After her mother ends her impromptu concert, the two speak honestly about her mother's mental illness and her mother suggests that Keda take formal voice lessons. That night Keda sleeps better than she has in months. In the morning her fantasy friends who she calls the Georgia Belles, sing their last song to her ending with:

Peachy girl

You are ripe

You are

Your own magic

You don't need us to be free

All you need is a song

Diddlee-do-ee 

So I fling my blinds open, I open my mouth. I smear my ripe voice all over the morning. And let it ring. (p. 316)

GIVEAWAY

I am giving away my autographed copy of this book. If you are interested in receiving it, please leave me a comment (with your email address if you are new to my blog) by November 14. Want an additional chance? Post this on your social media of choice or start following my blog. Please let me know what you do and I'll add your name twice. Continental United States only.