Disappeared (audiobook)

 Narrators: Roxana Ortega and Christian Barillas

My Thoughts:

I am not an avid audiobook listener. I don't drive enough to have seven hours of passive listening time and I do not multi task well so listening when I am not driving is difficult. However, I also believed that I was not an ebook reader, and yet that has changed over the years and I almost exclusively read on a device now rather than reading paper books.  Therefore, at least once a year, I try again. 

I am not sure what the secret sauce is on listening to an audiobook that will pull you in to invest the time to listen is, but I also know that listening to books that I have read and loved before sometimes is a bust. I loved listening to Their Eyes Were Watching God, but I stopped listening to A Wrinkle in Time. I guess, the secret sauce, then is the quality of the narrator or narrators. With Sisters Matsumoto, it was good because it just sounded like I was at a play and I was backstage where I could only listen. With Their Eyes, it was definitely the narrator. But when I have never read it before, what pulls me in?

For this book, I think the narrators definitely pulled me in. They were easy to listen too. Not too dramatic, not too monotone. What kept me in is this is a suspenseful and exciting book. I just wanted to yell out to the two siblings - communicate! But no one was listening and the action and suspense just kept me in it for the whole time.  I just got the next audiobook through SYNC so I definitely am looking forward to the end of semester so I can listen to the next book, Illegal. 

From the Publisher:

You've never listened to a Francisco X. Stork novel like this before! A missing girl, a determined reporter, and a young man on the brink combine for a powerful story of choices, suspense, and survival.

Four months ago...

Sara Zapata's best friend disappeared, kidnapped by the web of criminals who terrorize Juarez.

Four hours ago...

Sara received a death threat - and, with it, a clue to the place where her friend is locked away.

Four weeks ago...

Emiliano Zapata fell in love with Perla Rubi, who will never be his so long as he's poor.

Four minutes ago...

Emiliano got the chance to make more money than he ever dreamed - just by joining the web.

In the next four days, Sara and Emiliano will each face impossible choices, between life and justice, friends and family, truth and love. But when the web closes in on Sara, only one path remains for the siblings: the way across the desert to the United States.

We Are Not From Here

 

My Thoughts:

This 2020 book by Jenny Torres Sanchez about three teenage migrants crossing from Guatemala through Mexico to try and get to the United States deserves all of the praise it has been receiving. The text is beautiful and heartbreaking. The chapters, told from the point of view of Pequeña and her younger brother Pulga are so wrenching that I had to remember to breathe. In the same way that the characters, through pain, hunger, dehydration, and fear start to lose grip of what is real and not real, I found myself drifting from their story to other stories of migrant teens and children separated from their families. The NPR stories of predators along our border as well as the desperate conditions in South America for these teens started mixing with this text. Fiction as a window to non fiction? Non fiction as a mirror of fiction? Both as doors to compassionate action and policy change? As the teens are on their journey I continued to wonder - who is watching? Who will listen? Who can help? I am hoping that the praise for this, including many "best book" honors will awaken in the spirit of young readers an opportunity for advocacy and action.

From the Publishers:

A poignant novel of desperation, escape, and survival across the U.S.-Mexico border, inspired by current events.

A Pura Belpré 2021 Young Adult Author Honor Book!
A BookPage Best Book of 2020!
A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best of 2020!
A School Library Journal Best Book of 2020!
A New York Public Library 2020 Top 10 Best Book for Teens!

Pulga has his dreams.
Chico has his grief.
Pequeña has her pride.

And these three teens have one another. But none of them have illusions about the town they've grown up in and the dangers that surround them. Even with the love of family, threats lurk around every corner. And when those threats become all too real, the trio knows they have no choice but to run: from their country, from their families, from their beloved home.

Crossing from Guatemala through Mexico, they follow the route of La Bestia, the perilous train system that might deliver them to a better life--if they are lucky enough to survive the journey. With nothing but the bags on their backs and desperation drumming through their hearts, Pulga, Chico, and Pequeña know there is no turning back, despite the unknown that awaits them. And the darkness that seems to follow wherever they go.

In this striking portrait of lives torn apart, the plight of migrants at the U.S. southern border is brought to light through poignant, vivid storytelling. An epic journey of danger, resilience, heartache, and hope.

Other goodies for teachers:

Learning guide for We Are Not From Here Thank you to Penguin Classroom. I especially appreciate the focus on pre-reading strategies. 

Possible pairings (or replacements) for some classics in your classroom closet:

Outsiders by S.E. Hinton - this also is the struggle of teens/young adults having to make their own way in the world and change things, especially when the adults are not able to guide them.