These are the books that I read prior to the release of the list. Most of these reviews are shorter than the reviews that I now write.
This book completely captivated me and left me wanting more after this book finished.
Kuo places each word carefully in this free verse novel based on her own life and some of the years that she spent growing up as an undocumented immigrant in 1980s California. She approached each story with care, doling out the pieces in small chunks, just the right size to chew on and contemplate. I highly recommend this book.
The kids in this story are so real and endearing. You can tell that Tang wrote from a place of real experience from how realistic and raw so many of the scenes were. I also admire how well Tang captures a ten year old’s mindset, not an easy feat. See my youtube channel (linked in my profile) for more in-depth thoughts.
Unfortunately, this book suffered from the purpose for which the author wrote it. He wanted to teach kids how to advocate for their rights, an absolutely admirable goal. However, to do so, he frequently interrupted the narrative to have the characters remember full length explanations from their public defender dad making the whole book read way more like a morality lesson than a story.
My full thoughts for this are on my (on hiatus) YouTube channel.
The audiobook is the way to go for this book. I think this might be my first full cast audiobook read. The full cast makes this book read like a true crime podcast making it fully immersive. Often, I become annoyed at unrealistic portrayals of schools but this book infuriated me because I know that schools like actually exist. Although some of the narrative does not match usual reality in that, especially the ending, is amped up a bit, I ended up fully engaged in this thought-provoking narrative.
Boulley knocked it out of the park, yet again. I loved Peri, the main character, so much and became so engaged in the driving conflict of the story, who deserves to tell the story. As a historian and advocate for social justice, so many of the actions of the neo-colonizers made me viscerally angry. I don’t know how Boulley can do this. Her books are AMAZING!
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