Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Indivisible by Daniel Aleman

Image: LBYR

Indivisible by Daniel Aleman. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~9 hours. Read by Adan Rocha. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/ Machete Audio, May, 2021. 9781549138058. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Happy Tuesday! Today is the end of my first full week of summer break and it certainly has been eventful as have the last 26 days. I'm reading some awesome books and have just made my way through a stack of fun picture books. 

Teen Tuesday features Indivisible by debut author, Daniel Aleman. Sixteen-year-old Mateo Garcia leads a pretty good life in the lower east side of Manhattan. He's out to his supportive parents, he's on track to get into a good college, he has two best friends in Kimmie and Adam and, while he may be poor, he, his seven-year-old sister, Sophie, and his parents are close-knit and happy. All that comes crashing down when ICE agents arrest his parents. It doesn't matter that they have built a life in the U.S. after overstaying their visas. It doesn't matter that their children were born here and are U.S. citizens. It doesn't matter that Pa runs a bodega that is an important part of their neighborhood. 

With no relatives to turn to, Mateo and Sophie do their best to maintain normalcy. A family friend offers to take them in, but Mateo declines. His apartment is tiny and his wife just had a baby. Soon, the reality of keeping up at school, running the bodega, caring for Sophie and making rent sets it. A near-miss with Child Protection forces Mateo to face reality.

Mr. Aleman effectively puts faces on the faceless. He paints portraits of striving immigrants who love their adoptive country and work hard for very little. Mateo is an earnest narrator and Adan Rocha's performance is nuanced and emotionally resonant. 

Like Efrén Divided, Indivisible is powerful, timely and important. It belongs in all library collections. 

Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: Efrén Divided by Ernesto Cisneros

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

Efrén Divided by Ernesto Cisneros. Unabridged e-audiobook. ~3 hours, 35 minutes. Read by Anthony Ray Perez. Quill Tree Books, April, 2020. 9780062971852.

Middle Grade Monday features Efrén Divided by Ernesto Cisneros. Efrén, our twelve-year-old narrator lives with his undocumented parents in a tiny apartment with his five-year-old twin siblings, Mia and Max. His parents work hard to support the family and are loving and involved. Erfén enjoys school and does well. All this changes when ICE raids his Amá's workplace and she is deported. Now Efrén's Apá has to take on more work and Efrén is tasked with increased responsibility while the family explores ways of bringing Amá home, for the U.S. is really home.

This timely and touching book is the author's debut and it has been getting a fair amount of award buzz. I wouldn't be surprised if it wins something next Monday. Mr. Cisneros paints a vivid picture of a working-class, poor immigrant family rich in culture and love who are hopeful and striving for a better life. Readers will empathize with Efrén as he attempts to balance school with caring for his twin siblings, one of whom has some attention and behavior issues and relate to his grief and fear for the well-being of his family. There are moments of heart-melting mushy joy that somewhat leaven the moments of tension and sheer terror.

Narrator Anthony Ray Perez paces his performance well and beautifully conveys Efrén's love and worry for his family. This is a book that belongs on all library shelves. Timely, relevant, important. 

Middle Grade Monday: Strike Zone by Mike Lupica

Image: Penguin Random House

Strike Zone by Mike Lupica. Unabridged e-audiobook. ~6 hours. Read by Anthony Rey Perez. Listening Library/ Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, September, 2019. 9780593106228. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Middle Grade Monday features Strike Zone by Mike Lupica. There are quite a few Lupica fans at TMS. They sure do have plenty of titles to choose from! Strike Zone is a companion/ sequel of sorts to High Heat. You need not have read High Heat to enjoy Strike Zone, but it is wonderful to know Michael Arroyo's backstory. Strike Zone is about another pitching ace in Bronx, New York. Nick Garcia is pitching for the Blazers this summer He's preparing for the Dream League championship and hoping to pitch well enough to earn MVP. The league MVP gets to throw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium. He's also worried about his father being deported by ICE. ICE has been making a lot of raids in his neighborhood and his dad has an outstanding warrant. 

As usual, Lupica serves up fantastic baseball action along with timely topics. There is true suspense around Mr. Garcia's situation. Though there's quite the "after-school-special vibe" here*, especially the ending, middle grade fans will eat this up.

*That is not necessarily a bad thing during these weird times.

Teen Tuesday: The Grief Keeper by Alexandra Villasante

Image: Penguin

The Grief Keeper by Alexandra Villasante. 320 p. G.P. Putnam's Sons/ Penguin Young Readers, June, 2019. 9780525514022. (Review of arc courtesy of publisher.)

Teen Tuesday features The Grief Keeper by Alexandra Villasante. This powerful and timely debut tells the story of two sisters who are seeking asylum in the United States because they fear for their lives after their father disappears and their brother is murdered back in El Salvador. The two have walked for days and weeks, enduring harsh conditions; but they have been caught. Seventeen-year-old Marisol fears that her plea for asylum will not be granted and flees the detention center with her sister, Gabi. They are picked up by a government agent and offered a deal to stay in the U.S. Marisol can become a "grief keeper," an experimental conduit for grief or trauma in exchange for asylum. 

Medical experimentation can be an ethical slippery slope. Often test subjects are the least able to give informed consent and most likely driven by desperation—prisoners, poor people and those without power. Marisol is terrified of being sent back and hides the side effects of the transfer from the doctor and agent in charge. 

Through Marisol's careful, thoughtful narration, readers slowly learn her secrets as well as the secrets of Rey, the teenage daughter of a powerful DC businessman from whom Marisol must absorb traumatic grief. Tension is high in this genre-blender—part sci/fi, part thriller, part romance. Along the way, thoughtful readers might ponder issues of identity, governmental power, immigration policies, prejudice and institutional racism. Wholly engrossing and beautifully written, Marisol is a character who will linger long after you close the book.