by Matt Mendez
Atheneum, 2019. 306 pages, Young Adult Fiction
Juan dreams of basketball stardom to lift himself and his struggling mother, Fabi, from poverty. His friend JD has similarly star-stuck aspirations and hopes to become a filmmaker, despite push back and pressure from his own home life threatening his success. When Fabi loses her job, forcing the pair to move back in with her father at the same time that Juan suffers an injury that puts his basketball career on hold, he discovers a startling fact about the man who may be his father and the course of his life takes an unexpected turn— one that leads JD to the perfect topic for his film.
What I liked most about this book was the underlying hope for a better life that each of the main characters believes in, despite the hardships they endure as Mexican-Americans in a time in this country when that fact adds turbulence. The book feels raw and real, the characters flawed and at times victims of circumstance doing their best to stay afloat, causing readers to feel their struggle viscerally. Not a light-hearted read, but an important one that I’d recommend to fans of YA books that take on social issues through story, like American Street, Mexican Whiteboy, or Long Way Down.
RC
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