Secret Side of Empty - Review

Review:

 

“How do you explain to someone that you are so horrible and useless that your own father despises you? I am so ashamed. I don’t want them to know because I know they’ll figure out what that means about me. The dirty, ugly outcast I really am.”

 

“… seventeen ways to say Illegal: Broken, Alone, Not allowed, Wrong, Trapped, Shunned, Unwanted, Not good enough, Apart, A secret, On the wrong side, Misplaced, A threat, A mistake, Voiceless, Unheard, and Still here anyway."

 

M.T. is a high school senior in New Jersey, brought here by her parents from Argentina as a baby, and her family is undocumented. Her father is abusive and her mother is too timid to do anything about it. M.T. is ashamed to tell even her best friend about her secrets.

 

This was a tough book to read. I hated to see M.T. so alone and suffering. Then again, this book tackles a lot of issues. She is bright and wants to go to college, but she can't because she is undocumented. Her father abuses her. She contemplates suicide and tries drugs and alcohol.

 

This is the second book I read for my multicultural issue paper. Unlike Alma in the first book (Dream Things True), M.T. doesn't have a supportive community who shares her concerns about being illegal. M.T. has been in the United States her entire life. She and her brother don't know any other life. She faces the same issues of insecurity and worries about acceptance that any other teen faces, but she is also dealing with an abusive father and being illegal.

 

This is another good book for teens to read. I think they will enjoy the story and along the way, they may find a tolerance they didn't know they had. It is hard when all the media and news you see is telling you to think one thing or another. This book may help teens develop their own thoughts on the situation.

 

Original post: readingismyescape.booklikes.com/post/1540068/secret-side-of-empty-review

The land flourished because it was fed from so many sources -- because it was nourished by so many cultures and traditions and peoples.

 

 

-- Lyndon B. Johnson

 

(Chapter 3 quote)

Original post: readingismyescape.booklikes.com/post/1539810/post

It was my father who taught us that an immigrant must work twice as hard as anybody else, that he must never give up.

 

 

--Zinedine Zidane

 

(Chapter 2 Quote)

Original post: readingismyescape.booklikes.com/post/1539808/post

Dream Things True

Review:

 

Alma thought back to the day she learned that she wasn’t in status – that she was a person who was here but not welcome, embedded in this place, but also somehow apart from it.

 

None of it mattered. None of it mattered because she was, as she had always known, one of the kids stuck in between.

 

 

Alma is a junior in high school, brilliant, with a bright future, but her family is undocumented and the threat of ICE is always looming. Alma wants to tell her new boyfriend, Evan, but she is ashamed, and his uncle is pushing for a crackdown on illegal immigrants.

 

I read this book for my multicultural lit class. Alma is a feisty girl and I like her. Her life is difficult, but she has a large community supporting her. Alma’s parents just wanted to give her and her brother a better life, and they took a big chance by coming to the United States. This a good example of perseverance in a difficult situation. And the ending wasn't oversimplified.

 

This is a good book for teens to read. It may help them sympathize with the plight of illegal immigrants. Also, teens will see that the characters are just like them and experience similar feelings. I read three books on this issue for an essay I did for class. In all three books, the main characters dealt with shame and feelings of not belonging anywhere. 

 

A good multicultural book for anyone to read, especially now.

Original post: readingismyescape.booklikes.com/post/1539804/dream-things-true

The truth is, immigrants tend to be more American than people born here.

 

 

- Chuck Palahniuk, Choke

 

Found in Something in Between, along with many other immigrant-related quotes

Original post: readingismyescape.booklikes.com/post/1539452/post