Elizabeth Acevedo

Out financial necessity, Camino's father spends most of the year in the U.S. but always returns to the Dominican Republic to spend the summer with her. This year on the day he is supposed to arrive, however, word reaches her that his plane crashed just after liftoff. There were no survivors. In New York, Yahaira is reeling from her own loss when she receives another life-altering shock in the form of a message from Camino, a girl in the Dominican Republic who is apparently her half-sister.

I wasn't expecting the narrative to be in verse, but I kind of dug it. It's a story of devastation and loss, but also how one survives and manages to pick up the pieces again. The clever title will resonate with anyone who has experienced an applause landing. That collective, "We all survived!" moment is a special one. Recommended.… (plus d'informations)

Course recommendation. Could not put it down. High school students will love this one. She describes her struggles, but not her resolutions which is the appealing part to me. Kids will identify with the struggles and don't want to have people tell them how to solve them. The poetry reads narratively and lyrically. Her 2nd poem describes her struggle. "Unhide-able" tells us, "I am the baby fat that settled into D-cups and swinging hips/so that the boys who called me a whale in middle school/now ask me to send them pictures myself in a thong" (5). Pairing that with being raised Catholic, she has to come to terms with the fact that she stands out in a way that she doesn't want to. Her struggles come from how "your body takes up more room than your voice" (5). She is able to put a voice to a struggle with sexuality where she has no positive role models on how to handle it.… (plus d'informations)