We Were Here

Miguel, Rondell and Mong! These aren't white boys and this isn't about an excellent year or a boy that broke their hearts in high school. "We Were Here" by Matt de la Pena is a realistic, hard hitting, tear jerking and one hell of a read when you've been reading pretty soft young adult literature books. The boys are in juvi, they've all got a past, they all need a future. Three heads are better than one, a crazy head, a "dumb" head (Read it, You'll get the reference) and Miguels head set off to forget the past. Read it, find out!

Lessons...Lessons...Lessons!

This book is full of lessons and thinking back on an earlier post, it is a great oppostite pair with a "Eutopian Literature" book like "My Most Excellent Year." they are so brutally opposite that you may get dizzy if you read them back to back. However, our class came up with some cool pairing ideas. : What if some characters in this book...met some characters in that book? What if Miguel, the troubled mexican boy had been given a life like Alejandra, or T.C.? What if one of the softer guys or girls from "Paradise Island (My Most Excellent Year) had to deal with some of the tragedies that any of these guys in juvi had to?

Another great pair: If you can get through it...The Astonoshing Life of Octavian Nothing, just fast forward a little bit...Do you feel that minorities in our world today are part of some controlled government experiement...because to me it doesn't seem like anything but easy to decide that everyone should be treated fairly...equally...! Oh my Goodness Im A SOCIALIST! (deal with it...better yet look it up!)

What is de la Pena trying to say? These are broad questions but this book is excellent and especially as a pairing book! Check it out tell me what you think and try some of these lessons or incorporate your own.

Overall: Excellent book, very realistic and a good lesson, especially again around times of discussing minority status in america...it would go great in an education class...even at the college level! What is it that minorities deal with that alot of us just...don't.