Dark Dude Oscar Hijuelos
Set in the late 60s, Rico is fed up with being the only
Cubano in Harlem who's blond, light-skinned (he has freckles!) and hazel-eyed. Couple that with the fact that he was really sick as a child and spent a lot of time in hospitals and subsequently speaks messed up Spanish, and people have a really hard time believing Rico's Latino at all. He's sick of being beat up for his looks. He's sick of the kids at his school venting their frustration at whitey on him. When his friend Jimmy becomes a serious junky, Rico decides it's time to take a cue from Huck Finn, and runs away to a buddy's farm in Wisconsin.
In Wisconsin, Rico blends in and doesn't need to worry about his heritage, although he does miss his family. But Wisconsin isn't always the escape he thought it would be.
I loved, loved, loved Rico's voice and his believable vulnerability. This is a long book and it just flew by, but not in that fluffy-fast-read sort of way, but in that way that I just couldn't put it down. It wasn't gripping the way a thriller or mystery is, but I just wanted to keep hanging out with Rico and Jimmy and Gilberto and everyone else on the farm. One of Hijuelos's other book,
Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love is an adult title that's been on my to-read list for awhile. It's getting moved way way way up.
Mexican WhiteBoy Matt de la Pena
With a Mexican father and white mother, Danny has never felt like he fits in. When he's in his predominately white neighborhood and school, he's just that Mexican kid, but when he goes down to National City to spend the summer with his father's family, he's the white kid.
Still, this summer, getting to know his father's family, playing baseball, will give Danny many answers about who he is.
This is a hard one to review. I mean, it's extremely well-written. It's an excellent book. There are a million and one things right with it. There is very little wrong with it except that it's about boys. And baseball. An excellent book that a lot of people will love, but just not my thing.
And that's ok.
Press Release
The Américas Award is given in recognition of U.S. works of fiction, poetry, folklore, or selected non-fiction (from picture books to works for young adults) published in the previous year in English or Spanish that authentically and engagingly portray Latin America, the Caribbean, or Latinos in the United States. By combining both and linking the Americas, the award reaches beyond geographic borders, as well as multicultural-international boundaries, focusing instead upon cultural heritages within the hemisphere.The award is sponsored by the national Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP).
The award winners and commended titles are selected for their 1) distinctive literary quality; 2) cultural contextualization; 3) exceptional integration of text, illustration and design; and 4) potential for classroom use. The winning books will be honored at a ceremony (fall 2009) during Hispanic Heritage Month at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
2009 Américas Award Winners:
Just in Case: A Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book by Yuyi Morales. Roaring Brook Press (A Neal Porter Book), 2008.
The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle. Holt, 2008.
2009 Américas Award Honorable Mentions:
The Best Gift of All:The Legend of La Vieja Belén / El Mejor Regalo del Mundo:La Leyenda de la Vieja Belén by Julia Alvarez. Illustrated by Ruddy Nuñez. Alfaguara/Santillana, 2008.
Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos.Atheneum, 2008.
The Storyteller’s Candle / La velita de los cuentos by Lucía González. Illustrated by Lulu Delacre. Children’s Book Press, 2008.
For additional information including a list of the 2009 Américas Award Commended Titles winners click here.
Release Date: September 16, 2008!
How many teens have wished they could escape the darkness of their lives and live in a land of milk and honey? Rico Fuentes does just that in DARK DUDE by Oscar Hijuelos.
Rico is one hundred percent Cuban, yet he struggles daily to identify with his Cuban peers. His mom and little sister have brunette hair and cinnamon colored skin. His dad has both dark wavy hair and dark eyes. But Rico, with hazel eyes and fair skin with freckles, looks white. In Harlem, that pretty much guarantees daily harassment.
When Rico has to change to a public school he is exposed to drugs, crime and violence like never before. Early in the school year, a student is shot and Rico watches in shock as his new classmates celebrate a day off. Soon Rico’s skipping school to avoid random beatings. When his pops finds out he warns Rico that he’ll be spending the summer with his military uncle in Florida.
It’s not until his friend Jimmy is rushed to the hospital, due to a drug related accident, that Rico realizes he has only one way out. He must find a way to Wisconsin to stay with his friend, Gilberto, on his farm. When Jimmy is released, Rico talks him into going to Wisconsin with him. After a road trip to remember on the way to the farm, they wonder what they’ve gotten themselves into when Gilberto immediately puts them to work painting the outside of the dilapidated farmhouse in exchange for their room and board.
Rico finds farm life in Wisconsin to be much slower than in Harlem. He spends a lot of time re-reading his favorite author, Mark Twain. Then he finds himself attracted to a girl whose father has a drinking problem. He’d never realized that his own experiences with an alcoholic dad could be helpful to someone else. As the months go by, Rico begins to look at himself, and those around him, differently. More importantly, he begins to accept himself.
DARK DUDE is a gritty read. The projects, the bars, and the backstreets of Harlem become real to the reader as Mr. Hijuelos drops you into each scene, and he creates a character with so much promise, but with so much working against him, that we cannot stop at each chapter break. Instead we read on, praying that nothing bad with happen to Rico, and when it does, we find ourselves urging Rico on, to find the best in himself, to reach for those dreams we know he wants. This is a realistic, yet inspiring read for anyone who wants to find a way to make a different choice, to find the person they really want to be.
This review was originally posted here at Teens Read Too.
This list of new books came at the right time since I just finished reading "Every Night is Ladies Night," by Micheal Jaime-Becerra yesterday. Becerra's book was a great read of connected short stories with true-to-life working class people in El Monte.
What a great list! Thank you for compiling!
Glad to be of service to both of you. This is one of the major reasons for La Bloga's existence -- spreading the word about great reads: old, new, and yet-to-be.