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Searching... Alpaugh Branch Library (Tulare Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Young Adult Area | YA FIC DE LEON JENNIFER | Searching... Unknown |
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Searching... Porterville Public Library (Porterville) | Searching... Unknown | Young Adult Fiction Area | YA DE LEON AR 4.2 | Searching... Unknown |
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Searching... Tulare County Pop Up Library (Tulare County) | Searching... Unknown | Young Adult Area | YA FIC DE LEON JENNIFER | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Tulare Public Library | Searching... Unknown | Young Adult Fiction | De Leon | Searching... Unknown |
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Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
"A funny, perceptive, and much-needed book telling a much-needed story." --Celeste Ng, author of the New York Times bestseller Little Fires Everywhere
"Written with humor and grace, with intimacy and empathy, Don't Ask Me Where I'm From is the perfect coming of age novel for our time." --Matt Mendez, author of Barely Missing Everything and Twitching Heart
First-generation American LatinX Liliana Cruz does what it takes to fit in at her new nearly all-white school. But when family secrets spill out and racism at school ramps up, she must decide what she believes in and take a stand.
Liliana Cruz is a hitting a wall--or rather, walls.
There's the wall her mom has put up ever since Liliana's dad left--again.
There's the wall that delineates Liliana's diverse inner-city Boston neighborhood from Westburg, the wealthy--and white--suburban high school she's just been accepted into.
And there's the wall Liliana creates within herself, because to survive at Westburg, she can't just lighten up, she has to whiten up.
So what if she changes her name? So what if she changes the way she talks? So what if she's seeing her neighborhood in a different way? But then light is shed on some hard truths: It isn't that her father doesn't want to come home--he can't...and her whole family is in jeopardy. And when racial tensions at school reach a fever pitch, the walls that divide feel insurmountable.
But a wall isn't always a barrier. It can be a foundation for something better. And Liliana must choose: Use this foundation as a platform to speak her truth, or risk crumbling under its weight.
Author Notes
Jennifer De Leon is an author, editor, speaker, and creative writing professor who lives outside of Boston. She is the editor of Wise Latinas: Writers on Higher Education , the 2015-2016 Writer-in-Residence at the Boston Public Library, and a 2016-2017 City of Boston Artist-in-Residence. She is also the second recipient of the We Need Diverse Books grant. She is the author of Don't Ask Me Where I'm From and Borderless .
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7--10--Everything is changing. American-born Liliana and her twin brothers live in Boston with their El Salvadoran mother and Guatemalan father, who has been mysteriously absent for weeks. No one talks about where her dad is or when he is coming back, and Liliana doesn't have the heart to ask her mother, who is often crying and exhausted. The book opens just as Liliana has been accepted into METCO, a program to desegregate schools by putting good students from low-performing urban schools into high-achieving suburban schools. Liliana switches schools reluctantly, accustomed to her own community of people who look like her, sound like her, and have shared experiences. She cannot easily relate to her white classmates, from the way they talk to their reactions to her cultural norms. Feeling ostracized, Liliana meets Dustin, who gives her butterflies whenever they interact. De Leon uses frequent Spanish words and Latino pop culture references, with plentiful context clues, to portray Liliana's world and family. That, paired with slang-heavy dialogue, keeps the story moving along. It will be familiar territory for readers who straddle two cultures, for anyone who has had to be a newcomer, and, in this era, anyone who has ever worried about the impact of deportation on families. VERDICT A timely addition to most collections, this realistic fiction title will resonate with many readers.--Katie Llera, Brunner Elementary School, Scotch Plains, NJ
Publisher's Weekly Review
Things are tense at home for 15-year-old Liliana Cruz: her father has been gone for weeks, her mother is increasingly depressed but won't tell her why, and she's recently been accepted into a program she didn't even know her parents signed her up for: METCO, a high school "desegregation program." Now she must wake up at 5 a.m. to catch the bus from diverse inner-city Boston to a predominantly white and wealthy suburban high school. With her distracted best friend Jade wrapped up in a new boyfriend and the other METCO kids ignoring her, Liliana has to find her own way in Westburg High. But just as she makes friends with sarcastic Holly and starts a romance with a seemingly sweet white boy named Dustin, her new equilibrium is thrown off-kilter by an incident of racism and the well-wrought, devastating revelation of where her father really is. De Leon's debut handles issues such as immigration, deportation, assimilation, and Trump-era racial tensions in a humorous yet resonant way. Throughout, Liliana's narration remains authentic as she finds her voice, making for a fulfilling, thoroughly contemporary read. Ages 14--up. Agent: Faye Bender, the Book Group. (Aug.)
Kirkus Review
An inner-city Boston student is accepted into a high school desegregation program. Liliana's dad's absence has been occupying her mind ever since he disappeared at the end of summer. This isn't the first time he has gone away, but this time feels different: Her mom keeps having hushed, frantic phone conversations and won't tell her where he is. Even more stress is added to Liliana's life when she is pulled out of class by the vice principal and told that her acceptance into the Metropolitan Council for Education Opportunity (METCO) program means she'll be commuting 20 miles to a predominantly white school in the suburbs. When she arrives at Westburg High, Liliana is surprised to see some other METCO students, like her peer mentor, Genesis, or the basketball team's star, Rayshawn, completely immersed in the school's academic and cultural activities. After finding out the truth about her dad's absence, Liliana begins to analyze her own identity and biases in order to survive and excel at Westburg. While the aspiring young writer theme feels tired at times, De Leon's debut deals tactfully with the tensions that race relations and the stress of keeping family secrets can bring on teenagers, producing an honest and empathetic portrayal. Liliana's mother is from El Salvador and her father's from Guatemala. A thought-provoking tale about navigating race and immigration issues. (Fiction. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
When half-Guatemalan, half-Salvadoran Liliana, writer supreme at her inner-city Boston high school, discovers that she's been accepted into a very "white," very "bougie" academic program she never applied to, she must decide whether or not to let this new school determine who she is and who she wants to be. Adding to her angst is the mystery of her dad's absence, about which no one in her family seems to have answers. De Leon takes readers on an action- and dialogue-packed emotional roller coaster that explores self-identity and pride in one's diverse roots, centering on the perspective of a typical high-schooler worried about not only boys and grades but also the safety of her family. Readers will truly feel for and understand who Lili is, rooting for her as she discovers herself and begins to participate in social justice activism. An energetically paced, boundary-pushing novel that raises important questions of race, identity, belonging, true friendship, and how to stand up for a cause you truly believe in.