"Fresh off the success of her Oakland-set debut novel, Shut Up, This is Serious, Bay Area author Carolina Ixta returns with a sophomore offering inspired in part by the inequities she saw in the region. For Ixta - a public education advocate and alumna of the Oakland Unified School District who now teaches fourth and fifth grade in San Leandro - fiction writing is a megaphone for social consciousness. Writing for a young adult audience, in particular, allows her to entertain young readers and teach them about their own realities."
"But they are having those quintessential American and Latinx experiences under Selva's dark shadow, which literally blots out their once-blue skies. Ixta's novel wraps these issues in a juicy love story and a sympathetic familial drama. Her prose is expressive throughout. A school fistfight turns one teen's mouth into "a grid of red clenched between his teeth" and Paloma's life"
Protagonists and families navigate environmental pollution as Selva's dark shadow literally blots out once-blue skies. Latinx youths balance quintessential American experiences with cultural identity, romantic relationships, and familial obligations. A father's work-related injuries and a grandfather's participation in the Bracero Program illustrate labor's impacts on health and economic mobility. Community opposition to warehouse construction and an epigraph likening children to canaries emphasize environmental justice concerns. Classroom and neighborhood scenes depict physical and emotional conflict, including a violent school fight. The tone mixes romance, familial drama, and social consciousness aimed at young readers.
#environmental-justice #labor-and-health #latinx-experience #young-adult-fiction #community-activism
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