Sunday, May 27, 2018

Pequeño Pais (Gael Faye)

Pequeño Pais

Gael Faye

Gaby vive en Burundi, África, hijo de una mujer tutsi y un fránces que viajó al pais a hacerse una vida. El momento histórico de la historia sucede antes de el genocidio en Ruanda, país vecino, y la guerra civil en Burundi.

Gaby pertenece al callejón, junto con sus amigos de aventura Gino, Armand y los gemelos. Pasan sus días robando magos de las casas del vecindario y se refrescan en el río que tanto adoran. Los días del verano pasan, compartiendo el tiempo en una combi rota en un baldío abandonado.

Sin embargo, la vida de Gaby cambia cuando sus padres se separan. En una visita a Jacques, amigo del padre de Gaby, la tensión entre ambos se tona en el aire. Muy pronto su madre abandona la casa y pasa sus días alejada de sus hijos. El padre pasa noches fuera de casa,  dejando a Gaby y su pequeña hermana Ana solos.

Su tío Pacifique decide unirse al grupo tutsi rebelde que busca recuperar el poder de Ruanda de la étnica hutu, pronto la guerra se cuela en la vida de Gaby. Cuando viajan al casamiento de Pacifique en Kigali, el rumor de la proximidad de las matanzas se palpa en el ambiente.

Cuando el grupo rebelde avanza, llevando a multitudes de hutus a movilizarse en éxodo a Burundi, la madre de Gaby viaja a Kigali intentando encontrar a sus familiares. Sin embargo, las atrocidades que ve la llevan a la locura.

La guerra civil se acerca a la vida de Gaby, y sin quererlo, deberá tomar una posición, eligiendo un bando sobre otro.

Una historia de crecimiento, dolor y pérdidas, Gaby debe dejar su niñez atrás y volverse un adulto en un mundo en que el contexto histórico cambiará todo a su alrededor.

Ganador del premio Gouncourt que eligen los estudiantes adolescentes en Francia, claramente refleja las preocupaciones y duda que ellos deben enfrentar cuando la historia interfiere en sus vidas, modificándola para siempre.

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Friday, May 25, 2018

Hope was Here (Joan Bauer)

Hope was Here

Joan Bauer

Hope is a teenager that lives with her aunt Addie as her mother has left her to continue her waitressing career. When we find Hope at the beginning of the novel, she is leaving Brooklyn as her aunt, who is a cook, has to find a new job. Her partner stole their money and went away with one of the waitress.

As they move on the road, Hope thinks about the times she has to leave her friends and change school. When they get to their new destination, they meet G.T. Stoop, the owner of Staiways Diner. At the front of the diner, you can see a phrase that says 'welcome'. G.T. explains to Hope and Addie that his Quaker ancestors built the two-sides stairways to welcome people  wherever they were coming from. His hospitality remains the same. 


The diner is not only where Hope puts her energy. G.T. is running for mayor of the town and his campaing leads the teenagers of the nearby school to fully become involved. The cooker assistant, Braverman, is a young boy who soon attracts Hope's attention as he expresses his passion for the possibility to change things. 

When the numbers present T. G. as the winner, things become darker and darker. However, T.G.'s illness is what really worries the town. He has cancer and some believe that he is not going to live by the time of the elections.

A story full of heart and ideas, it displays the power the citizents have when they decide to make use of it. It is a useful narration to make teenagers ask themselves their roles in society and how even the tiniest movement can influence people's lives.

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Thursday, May 24, 2018

Fish in a Tree (Lynda Mullaly Hunt)

Fish in a tree

Lynda Mullaly Hunt


If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree,
it will live its life believing it is stupid


This YA novel narrates the story of Ally, a teenager who struggles with words. For Ally, letters move like ants in the page, or they mix up making reading impossible. Ally used to love Maths, but since the calculations become narrations with characters and settings, she also hate those lessons, too.


However, Ally didn´t always have this relationship with words. When her grandpa, a retired soldier, read aloud Alice in Wonderland, she could imagine every single object in the story. In fact, every time somebody says something unusual, she is capable of creating these movies full of pictures in her mind.

Ally doesn´t have friends at school. She feels that everybody thinks she is dumb or simply slow. However. when she makes a gentle gesture towards Keisha and she understands that Albert has his own way to see life, she starts  a change in her days for the better.

What really modifies Ally's life is Mr. Daniels. The new teacher has decided to help Ally and to make her trust him, something that is really a challenge as she is bullied at school by the popular girl of the grade.

A real heroine that fights to overcome her problems as she realises that she can obtain what she wishes with hard work and friends. this is a story that is a good example of what children with difficulties at school, both social and academic, has to endure every day.

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Sunday, May 20, 2018

Apple y Rain (Sarah Crossan)

Apple y Rain 

(Sarah Crossan)

Esta YA novela comienza con lo que según la protagonista, Apple, una adolescente de 14 años, es su primer recuerdo. Siendo una pequeña niña, Apple cuenta la noche en la cual su madre desaparece de su vida. Estando en su habitación, escucha gritos en la cocina. Sin embargo, no puede bajar las escaleras por la puerta de seguridad. Su abuela y su madre están discutiendo, su madre envuelta en una campera verde. Cuando se va. mira hacia donde esta Apple pero ni  siquiera se despide.
Cuando se retoma la narración al presente, Apple vive con su abuela Bernardette, una mujer estricta que la acompaña a todos lados. Apple tampoco es feliz en el colegio. Su mejor amiga Pilar se esta alejando de ella, uniéndose a las populares, y dejándola sola, vagando por los corredores.

Mr Gaydon, el profesor de Lengua, comienza sus clases con poemas que buscan que los alumnos expresen sus ideas y sentimientos. A pesar de que Apple escribe bellos poemas, siempre entrega escritos superficiales por el miedo de que sus verdaderas emociones sean expuestas.

Un dia, inesperadamente, su madre reaparece y todo su mundo cambia. Luego de pelearse con su abuela, y decide irse a vivir con ella. Pero cuando llega a su departamento, una sorpresa la espera.

Una historia contada con amor e inteligencia, una historia real sobre una chica real, y lo que hace cuando encuentra a alguien más roto y perdido que ella misma.

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Friday, May 18, 2018

Hag-Seed (Margaret Atwood)

Hag-Seed

Margaret Atwood

This novel is a contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare´s The Tempest. It narrates the story of Felix, an aged director of theatre that is betrayed by his assistant Tony, who has, step by step, taken over his job and replaced him. Felix moves to a derelict warehouse in which he plans his revenge.

He starts talking with his daughter, who died when she was a toddler and it would have been a teenager. She remains invisible to others, according to Felix, but he can hear her living with him in the warehouse.

When he loses his job, Felix starts working as a theatre teacher in the nearby prison. There. he successfully trains inmates to express themselves and show a different side of their personalities.

When he finds out that Tony and Sal, another of his enemies in the theatre board, are visiting the prison to see a representation of a play, he decides to put The Tempest on stage. He is going to be Prospero and he hires a young actress called Anne-Marie to represents Miranda.

At the beginning, the convicts don't understand why he has chosen this play when they feel more attracted to plays such as Macbeth o Richard III. They dislike the presence of magic  and, especially, of the fairies. However, with the help of Anne-Marie they take the play for themselves and make the performance unique.

When the time of revenge comes, Felix/Prospero is ready to use his actors to shock his enemies, leading them to an experience they will never forget.

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Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Bajo el árbol de los Toraya (Philippe Claudel)

Bajo el árbol de los Toraya

Philippe Claudel


Esta novela del autor francés comienza con un viaje que hace el narrador a dónde vive la comunidad de los Toraya. Estos entierran a sus muertos en sabanas para que pronto se conviertan en parte de la tierra. También entierran a los niños que fallecen dentro de un hueco de un árbol, por lo que cuando el hueco se cierra, pasan a ser parte del mismo.

En esta narración, el narrador se cuestiona sobre la esencia de la muerte a causa del fallecimiento de su mejor amigo Éugene. Mujeriego y apasionado, Éugene tiene 5 hijos de 5 mujeres diferentes, siendo el más pequeño tan solo un niño. Preso de un cáncer fulminante, se lo comunica al narrador por teléfono, como una humorada, creyéndose lo suficientemente fuerte como para ganarle.

Sin embargo, la muerte que lo ronda se lo apropia. En una visita al hospital, en sus últimos días, Éugene le pide al escritor que lo saque a la calle. Después de insistir denodadamente, logra convencer a su amigo. Juntos se acercan a un café. Allí verán a Milan Kundera, escritor checo que Eúgene admira, relatando la importancia que sus cuentos, ensayos y novelas han tenido a lo largo de su vida. Éugene expresa sus ideas abiertamente, sabiendo que será su última posibilidad de estar fuera del hospital. Poco tiempo después, Éugene muere.

Una novela que nos hace reflexionar sobre la vida y su fragilidad, sobre la muerte y su potencia. El autor cuestiona las decisiones que ha tomado, los caminos que ha dejado de lado, las oportunidades que
ha visto pasar. Así nos llevará a intentar entender el lugar que ocupamos en el mundo, y como valorar nuestros días en él.

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Saturday, May 12, 2018

The smell of other people's houses (Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock)

The smell of other people's houses

Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

This novel  narrates the story of four 16-year-old characters in the 60s in Alaska. The historical setting is the moment when the fact of statehood was discussed and Alaska stopped being  a territory and becomes state 49th.

One of the characters is Ruth. She lives with her mum and dad happily until tragic engulfs them and her life changes forever. She goes to live with her grandma together with her sister Lily. Grandma is stern and at times cruel, making Ruth look for love in the arms of a boy called Ray. When she gets pregnant, the fragility of her future reveals itself in front of her.

Dora suffers her alcoholic mother and father, who even threatens to attact her. She becomes a member of the family of her friend Dumpling, who sincerely accepts her and protects her when fortune knocks at her door.

Alyce desires to dance ballet more than anything in the world. However, the auditions to enter a dancing school collides with her working in her father's boat during fishing time. As she is in the boat, she sees a boy falling from the ferry that passes by and, as he recues him, she finds the courage to take her life in her handds.

Hanks is only 16 but he feels as old as time. His father died in a storm in the sea and his new stepfather is abusive towards his mother and his two younger brothers. He decides to escape taking the ferry but soon problems arrive and he realises that things are not going to be as easier as he thinks.

This novel deals with strong themes such as teenaged pregnancy, alcoholism, violence and abandonment. It is cyclical and the stories of the characters are interwined. However, the story is so well-constructed that the connections are not forced, they fluid naturally, leading the readers to a world of truth and discovery.

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