Illegal by Francisco X. Stork

Illegal resumes the story of Sara and Emiliano Zapata where Disappeared left off. Sara is living at the Fort Stockton Detention Center. A mere three weeks ago she was a reporter in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Now she's applying for asylum. Sara's best friend, Linda Fuentes had suddenly disappeared. Sara's investigation uncovered Linda's location and State Police were able to free her along with other women. Linda had sent Sara Leopoldo Hinojosa's cell phone. Hinojosa was responsible for enslaving Linda along with many other women, so his phone likely contains sensitive and important incriminating evidence. Because of this, Hinojosa set out to kill Sara and her family. Her mother fled to the interior of Mexico to live with her sister, while Sara and her brother Emiliano crossed illegally into the United States - with Hinojosa's phone. 

In the desert they were attacked by two of Hinojosa's men. One fled while the other was seriously wounded. While Emiliano stayed with the injured man, Sara went to get help. She encountered Sandy Morgan, a park ranger whose father Wes Morgan is an attorney.  Under Wes Morgan's guidance, it was decided that Sara would apply for asylum at the Fort Stockton Detention Center while Emiliano with Hinojosa's phone would travel to Chicago to stay with their father.

Emiliano was taken in by rancher Gustave Larsson. He harbours resentment towards his father who abandoned their family and is conflicted about contacting  his father, especially since he finds life on the ranch with Gustave peaceful. But Emiliano's father, who is staying in a motel in Sanderson, only thirty miles away, has left three messages for him. Reluctantly, Emiliano connects with his father and arranges for him to come to Larsson's ranch to pick him up. He also contacts Yoya, the person Ernesto told him is able to open the phone. She tells Emiliano she will do some research into his situation and advises him to only use a burner phone to contact him and also to consider going to a metropolitan area for his own safety. This leads Emiliano to contact his father and arrange to travel back to Chicago with him.

Emiliano's father along with help from Gustave Larsson manage to get him through the Border Patrol checkpoint. His father is now remarried to a woman named Nancy who has a six-year-old son named Trevor. He works for Abe Gropper and has changed his name to Roberto (Bob) Gropper. Emiliano decides not to tell his father about Hinojosa's phone.

At Fort Stockton, Sara meets with Sandy Morgan who tells her that her father is appealing the decision to deny her bond. Sara learns that her father is going to pick up Emiliano that morning and she tells Sandy that when her father came to see her, he had told her that his wife and father-in-law were nervous about harbouring an illegal immigrant. Sara later learns that Wes Morgan attempted to see her but was turned away and has gone to El Paso to file a complaint with the commissioner of ICE in charge of detention facilities. Sara also learns that her brother has made it past the Border Patrol and that he likely has the phone.

In Aurora, where Bob and Nancy Gropper live, Emiliano struggles with his feelings of anger, guilt and loss of trust in his father. Through Yoya, Emiliano learns that Hinojosa was killed after he was arrested and that he was part of a Mexican-U.S. trafficking ring. Some of the women are kept in Mexico, while others are taken to the United States. As a result, Yoya believes it is Americans who are after Hinojosa's phone. It is likely the phone contains sensitive information that can identify the Americans. She believes Sara is safe for now at the detention center but advises Emiliano not to call her.

However, at Fort Stockton, Sara is taken to see Assistant Field Office Director Walter Mello who questions her as to how she got into the country and if anyone was with her. Mello's threatening questioning leaves Sara fearful. 

The next day Yoya tells Emiliano that Walter Mello requested the incident report on the attack in the desert as well as Lester's confession. Mello will now know that Sara did not cross the border alone. She is also able to learn that someone named Marko Lisica was responsible for the attack on them in the desert and knows that Emiliano has Hinojosa's phone. Lisica owns the Odessa Agricultural Cooperative, but Yoya doesn't believe he's the main player. Instead, someone above Lisica, whom she names as "Big Shot"  has more to lose if the contents of the phone are revealed. Their goal now is to determine if the phone's contents can be used by the police.

While canvassing the neighbours for work, Emiliano meets Irene Costelo who hires him to paint her house. Meanwhile in the detention center, Mello reveals to Sara that he knows she crossed the border with her brother and wants to know his location. Determined to protect Emiliano, she tells Mello he returned to Mexico and refuses to answer any more questions without her lawyer. Mello places Sara in isolation.

After several days, Emiliano receives a call from someone named Louie who tells him that Yoya has gone into hiding, escaping just before her home was raided. Louie informs Emiliano that Yoya has learned a few things from an intercepted email between Lisica and Mello. Sara's lawyer, Wes Morgan was killed during an attack that was made to look like a burglary and that his father's business card was found. Lisica has ordered Mello to work on Sara while they deal with the father in Chicago. He also tells Emiliano that Big Shot "coordinates with Mexico for the women, distributes them to ...influential men here in the U.S. He protects these men. That's why they want things done quietly, legally if possible." He advises Emiliano that if he wants to go through with keeping the phone he needs to find someone in law enforcement he can trust.

Mrs. Costelo overhears this conversation and knowing Emiliano is in some kind of trouble tells him to find an old friend of hers, Stanislaw Kaluza, a retired Chicago Police officer who can be found at St. Hyacinth Basilica in Chicago.

After her credible fear interview, Mello again attempts to coerce Sara into revealing Emiliano's whereabouts. She attempts to bluff Mello by telling him that Emiliano returned to Mexico, but Mello reveals that they now know that he is with her father. He tells her the easy way is for Emiliano to give up the phone and that she simply needs to call him. Sara agrees to do this. But what Mello, Lisica and "Big Shot" do not realize is that Sara and Emiliano are determined to do the right thing no matter the personal cost. 

Discussion

Illegal is an exciting, well-written novel that explores the illegal immigrant experience through the eyes of two young Mexicans who have stumbled upon a Mexican- U.S. human trafficking operation. Sara, a reporter and her brother Emiliano have fled to the United States after Sara is given the phone of Hinojosa, a main player in the Mexican trafficking ring. Although they haven't turned on the phone, both are certain it contains critical information that could break up the trafficking ring. With Sara in a detention center and Emiliano on the run with the phone, they must each make the difficult decision of what to do with the phone. Do they return the phone to protect themselves and their families, knowing they will be leaving the trafficked women to their fate? Or do they take the risk hoping that their actions will rescue the many Mexican women who have been enslaved and abused. The novel's storyline focuses on this conflict in a game of moves and counter-moves.

Sara, in detention, comes to a decision fairly quickly. Despite being in isolation, deprived of her attorney and emotionally and  physically abused, Sara knows she must be strong. At the beginning of her time in the detention center Sara tries to put aside her fear. "I had to reach out in the dark and borrow Linda's courage, the courage that prompted her to steal the phone from Hinojosa and send it to me. I had to remember Linda's suffering. It was up to me and now up to my brother to make sure what she went through was not in vain."

 In a letter to Emiliano that she knows he will never see, she writes,
"The one thing that is becoming clear to me is that I need to believe that my life has meaning regardless of how long it lasts. It has to have a purpose now and not only when I get out of here." Seeing the suffering of the women in the detention center has strengthened Sara's resolve to help not only them but the women who are being trafficked. She writes, "If I were cut off from the suffering and hopelessness of the other women, my soul would shrink and die." So while she agrees to phone her brother to tell him to give up the phone Sara uses the call to send Emiliano a very different message. It appears she is telling him to simply obey her as he did Brother Patricio in the mountains, but she is really telling him to do what is right, to "Do it for Linda."

For Emiliano the process is longer and more complicated. He's puzzled by Sara's words to him during his phone call when she reminds him of what he learned on the Tarahumara trip with Brother Patricio. This was a trip Emiliano, filled with anger over his father's abandonment and their family's poverty, had been forced to undertake after stealing a camera. The two-day hike was grueling, living with the Rarmuri and Emiliano finally "realized that there was no way out other than to keep going..." Brother Patricio told him he was learning endurance for hope. "Hardship creates endurance and endurance creates character and character creates hope. And hope is the conviction that what you're doing is worth doing regardless of the outcome."  Reflecting on this experience, Emiliano believes this was Sara's message. 

"I had come to Chicago so I could give the phone to Yoya's people and so they could use the information in the phone to save the women who had been enslaved by Big Shot. Wasn't that the thing that required my endurance and my hope? Wasn't that what I was being asked to do? What would my life be like if I ran away from what was being asked?"

Sara had told her brother to "Do it for Linda." This meant to fight for them, to fight "For the Lindas and the Saras and the Trevors of the world. For those who are hurt and for those who are good. Because life's not worth living as a coward. Because whatever little courage I had should be used for the benefit of others."

Sara's message helps Emiliano figure out what he needs to do and gives him the resolve to do it. He leaves his father's home, rejecting the offer his father's employer, Abe Gropper has made of ten thousand dollars if he brings the phone the next day. He flees his father's home and is helped by several people, including Stanislaw Kaluza and his daughter Sophie and his granddaughter Aniela, Detectives Jaworksi and Rogers.

Stork has populated his novel with many interesting and well-crafted characters. There is Sara Zapata, the journalist who is searching for the truth and who believes the most people have some goodness in them. This is seen many times throughout the novel when Sara tries to appeal to the good in the people who are trying to do her harm. For example, when she is taken to her credible fear interview, she appeals to Norma Galindez, her asylum officer, begging her to call her attorney, Wes Morgan. Sara made the appeal because, "I could tell in her voice that there was goodness in her." She tries to appeal to the good in Mario, her guard in isolation and asks him to check for messages for her and begs him to call Sandy Morgan which he eventually does. She even attempts to appeal to any goodness in Rosaura Martel, a guard known as La Treunta Y Cuatro.

There is Emiliano who tries to discern the right thing to do. He doesn't want to go to Chicago with his father who abandoned him, Sara and their mother for a better life in the U.S. But after talking with Yoya, he knows he has to do this to keep the phone safe. "Because all that Sara had done to save the missing girls, all that she had sacrificed, all that she was going through at the detention facility, all that could not be lost." He puts aside his feelings and does what he knows to be right. He continues to show fortitude, ingenuity and a strength of character that is in contrast to his father Bob Gropper.

Aniela, Stanislaw Kaluz's granddaughter serves as a budding love interest for Emiliano as well as a character who moves the story forward in a simple but very contrived way. Stanislaw Kaluz is the kindly grandfather figure whose help makes taking down the traffickers a real possibility. And there is Bob Gropper, Emiliano's father, who has given up almost everything including his identity to be successful.

Stork is a master storyteller who has written a novel with many interesting facets to explore. One example is the issue of forgiveness. It is Aniela who helps Emiliano begin to forgive his father. Emiliano tells her that when he was dying in the desert, he was able to forgive his father and himself "for all the stupid, selfish things I had done in Mexico." But in the real world he finds forgiveness  of his father and Mrs. Coselo's killer much more difficult. Aniela, who has also experienced abandonment by her father, tells him she has learned hatred is poison. "Hate turns you into something you're not meant to be." she advises Emiliano. She tells him that all the faults she saw in her father and in his wife she also saw in herself, "...the arrogance and the superiority and the way they used people, all that was, is, in me." Her admission causes Emiliano to consider that the same drive to succeed and to prove himself to others that his father has may also be a part of him. But Aniela explains, "The big difference,...is that I don't like those things about myself. My father and his wife take pride in them. I know what's in me and I try not to act accordingly." 

Besides the issues of illegal immigration, human trafficking, and the treatment of illegal immigrants in U.S. detention centers, Stork also weaves an element of faith and prayer into his story, inviting readers to consider the power of prayer in our lives. The conclusion, while not overly exciting, ties up loose ends and is one of hope and optimism. Illegal is one of the best young adult novels of 2020.

Book Details:

Illegal by Francisco X. Stork
New York: Scholastic Press   2020
291 pp.

Baggage by Wendy Phillips

Baggage explores the issue of illegal refugees and human trafficking in this novel set in Vancouver, British Columbia. The story is told in verse, through voices of five people, Ms. Nelson a teacher, Brittany one of Ms. Nelson's students, Leah who is Brittany's sister, Thabo an illegal refugee and Kevin who is a friend of Brittany and Leah.

After returning from a trip to Japan with her students, Ms. Nelson notices the boy leaning against the baggage carousel in the International Arrivals area of the Vancouver International Airport. All of her students have been picked up except Brittany whose mother, an ER nurse, is late. That boy is Thabo who has been waiting for three hours after the old woman who accompanied him on the plane left to get food. She took his passport and papers and he has no idea where she is. Thabo doesn't speak English.

Ms. Nelson decides to intervene and takes Thabo to the airport police but no one can understand him. Eventually he is left with Immigration who will place him  in foster care while they determine his country of origin and his age.

At home, Brittany tells Leah and her mom that the boy was abandoned like "unclaimed baggage". She believes 

"He might be  a refugee a child soldier
maybe
a terrorist's kid
maybe
a victim of child trafficking."

While Brittany is focusing on Thabo and his situation, her friend Kevin, who does all the research for her social justice initiatives, begins to feel left out and used. At the same time, Brittany's sister Leah, who is a catcher on the local baseball team, begins to notice Kevin.

Brittany confronts Ms. Nelson after class one day, telling her that Kevin's research has shown that Thabo could end up in jail because he has no passport and no proof of age. She asks Ms. Nelson to find out what is going on with Thabo and tells her that her parents are willing to have him stay with her family. That night Ms. Nelson learns that Thabo has been placed in detention because of his lack of documentation and because he's considered a flight risk. The x-rays seem to indicate that he is likely older than eighteen years of age.

This news results in Brittany ramping up a massive social media campaign about Thabo's situation. She forces her family to take in Thabo and calls Kevin late that night to have him get his church minister involved. But when Border Services decides he's to be deported, Thabo seeks asylum in the Reverend's church. What they don't know is that the people who brought Thabo to Canada are actively looking for him and will stop at nothing to get him back.

Discussion

Baggage, a story about an illegal immigrant, tackles a host of social issues through a story told in verse. When Thabo is supposedly abandoned at Vancouver International Airport, he becomes the latest project of Brittany, a teenager who is described as a "passionate crusader". Soon Brittany has her family, her school and the community involved in her social media campaign to rescue Thabo. But it turns out that Brittany is so focused on publicity and activism that she doesn't ask the hard questions about Thabo's situation.

The novel attempts to focus on the social issue of illegal immigrants and human trafficking but there are also other issues explored such as the use of social media in dealing with social issues. A subplot is the blossoming romance between Kevin, who is largely ignored by Brittany, and her sister, Leah. Phillips tells Thabo's story using free verse, a format that provides only the basics of the story while highlighting the characters. Through Phillips effective free verse, readers will get a good sense of the main characters, what motivates them and how they are different.

It is the character of Brittany however, who steals the focus of the reader from illegal immigrant and potential trafficking victim, Thabo. Brittany, a master at generating publicity for causes, succeeds in her attempt to generate media attention for Thabo's plight, but at the same time reveals herself as someone so completely focused on her online image and on using social media, that she forgets about the human element, the real people involved and how they are being affected.

This is seen in her relationship, or lack of it, with her friend Kevin who has a crush on Brittany. Kevin begins to feel used as Brittany ramps up her media campaign for Thabo. He notes she "loves projects loves to talk to crowds" and "Her favourite part is getting people passionate about issues..." but he wishes he was "an issue and she would get passionate about me." Brittany writes slogans, considers "a poster series made into memes" and "A few sound bites from Kevin's research". Kevin is a means to an end, her researcher and not much more. Her use of Kevin, who is Chinese, in a multicultural poster with herself and Thabo is hurtful. She tells him, he is included because they are all good looking. Kevin knows it's "not a compliment, just a strategy".

For Brittany, Thabo is a "project". Brittany's focus is almost entirely on using Thabo to enhance her own image and social media campaign. In her effort to create a media storm around Thabo and his situation, Brittany forgets that she is dealing with a real person who may have experienced significant trauma. She doesn't take the time to think about how events are affecting Thabo. For example, when she brings him to stay in her family's home, Brittany is annoyed that he doesn't act grateful and she's irritated by the fact that he yells in his sleep.

Gradually Thabo becomes lost in Brittany's social media campaign, becoming a mere prop. When she brings him to school, it's more to show him off, and to generate her image of a social justice warrior.
"I'm bringing him
to school next week
to get him started on his missed education
to show him to everyone."

Brittany is excited to organize the Global Leadership club meeting, noting, "The club executive will be impressed. They'll all listen to me. It'll be cool." As the situation develops and Thabo takes refuge in the church, Brittany undertakes and organizes an amazing list of publicity stunts that include concerts, bake sales, and TV interviews.

In contrast to Brittany, Leah is more aware of how these events are affecting Thabo. She sees his humanity and treats him like a person who may be frightened and uncertain. Leah immediately tries to communicate with Thabo, discovering that immigration officials determined his language is Sotho, from southern Africa. This leads her to work on learning a few words of Sotho, practicing them over and over. When they take Thabo to school, it is Leah's quiet, "Ho lokile, It's okay." that brings a smile to his face. While Brittany is concerned about people donating to the Thabo Defense Fund, Leah worries that "Thabo is freaked out" and that other students might gang up on him. She checks in on him during the day.

It is Leah's quiet and calming approach to Thabo and her ability to empathize with others that draws Kevin to her. Leah recognizes that Kevin likes Brittany but she knows her sister isn't serious about any relationship, that she "dabbles in boyfriends". But Kevin begins to feel an attraction to Leah, who has a calming effect on him.

Ironically it is Kevin and Leah who are thrown together in an attempt to save Thabo. And incredibly Brittany continues to make the story about herself.
I post photos of the fire
do a few more selfies
pick the one
that shows to advantage
my cheekbones
and eyelashes
smoldering ruins in the background.

I Snapchat my friends
Tweet my networks
Instagram my circle, ...
update the Facebook page...

I change my profile picture
#GirlOnFire

To her dismay, Brittany finds herself on the outside of the trending story looking in!

Phillips has crafted a story that is both engaging and that offers many themes to explore. It's timely considering the ongoing refugee crisis in the world today. But the novel also offers young readers the chance to explore the issues surround social media and how it is used today. The novel's title, Baggage is an obvious reference to Thabo who is abandoned at the airport like a piece of baggage. But it might also be a reference to the "baggage" or emotional and psychological issues each of the characters have. There's plenty to explore in this intriguing novel.

Book Details:

Baggage by Wendy Phillips
Regina, Sask.:   Coteau Books    2019
295 pp.

The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon

Daniel Jae Ho Bae's older brother Charlie Jae Won Bae has just been kicked out of Harvard University. Daniel's parents who are immigrants from South Korea are disappointed and angry that their beloved first-born son who can do no wrong has failed. Charlie doesn't like Daniel and the feeling is mutual. As a little boy, Daniel looked up to his older brother but that changed when Charlie pushed him away to be with friends.

Daniel and Charlie's parents Min Soo and Dae Hyun met and married in South Korea and came to New York City to start a new life. With the help of a cousin they opened a beauty supply shop called Black Hair Care which sells hair care products to the African American residents of New York. They expect their children to be successful to be doctors. Now that Charlie has been forced to withdraw, the pressure is on Daniel to gain admission to a good school and to stick to the path chosen by his parents - becoming a doctor. But Daniel doesn't want to be a doctor. Instead he wants to be a poet.  He's refused to apply to Harvard, but has an interview today with a Yale alum.

Daniel dresses in his new gray suit and a bright red tie for the interview and takes the Westbound 7 train to Manhattan where his favourite barber is located. He has the entire day free before his interview and he decides he will "do whatever the world tells him to", that he will "blow in the direction of the wind."  Enroute the train is stopped in a tunnel just before the Times Square station by the conductor who encourages everyone to find God. From Times Square Daniel decides to walk to the barber keeping an eye for a "Sign". He stops outside a church on Thirty-Seventh Street but when it's locked his sits down to people watch. That's when Daniel sees a black girl with a huge Afro and huge pink headphones completely blissed out listening to music. Daniel recognizes that she's passionate about music and finds this attractive. He decides to follow her when she enters a music store called Second Coming Records. 

Natasha Kingsley, her nine year old brother Peter and her parents Samuel and Patricia are being deported tonight. She and her parents are undocumented, illegal immigrants from Jamaica. They were discovered when her father was charged with a DUI.  Natasha decides to try one last time to prevent their deportation by going to the offices of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. On her way into the USCIS offices, Natasha has her personal effects scrutinized by Irene, one of the many security guards. She's late for her 8a.m. appointment with Karen Whitney by five minutes and she is refused. Just as she's about to be escorted out by security, a brown-skinned man by the name of Lester Barnes intervenes. Barnes tells Natasha that her family is here illegally and that she has to leave. He attempts to tell her "Everything is irie there, man" but Natasha questions him about whether or not he saw the real Jamaica on his trip. She begins to cry telling him she planned to attend college and will be returning to a country she doesn't know and hasn't lived in since she was eight. Barnes gives her the name of a lawyer, Jeremy Fitzgerald who can "fix" her situation. Natasha has an appointment at eleven a.m. and so she decides to walk to the lawyer's office and stop in at her favourite record store along the way.

Inside Second Coming, Natasha is disgusted to see her ex-boyfriend Rob and his new girlfriend, Kelly, making out and stealing records. Also watching is a stranger, a Korean boy who is astonished at what Rob and Kelly are doing.Natasha refers to him as Red Tie and together they watch as Rob and Kelly are confronted by a store employee. Daniel introduces himself and shakes hands with Natasha but she's not interested, doesn't tell him her name and tells him to have a nice life. Daniel follows Natasha out of the store and when she goes to step off the curb to cross the street, Daniel sees a BMW running the red light and pulls her out of danger. Natasha is stunned but grateful despite her headphones being broken. Daniel presses her to tell him her name which she does and he invites her to get something to eat. He learns that Natasha is from Jamaica and that she has an important appointment to keep, something that is causing her worry.

While Daniel believes he could have the life his father wants for him and be a great doctor, "something about Natasha makes me think my life could be extraordinary.." Daniel finds himself inexorably attracted to Natasha. In fact, he believes he's falling in love with her even though he knows being with a black girl will never gain his parent's approval. In the coffee shop, Natasha is not friendly towards Daniel and is dismayed to discover that Daniel is falling for her. She tells him not to fall in love with her because she has no intention of falling in love with him. In fact she doesn't believe in love because it can't be measured and is temporary.

So Daniel challenges Natasha that he can get her to fall in love with him. To do this he decides to use some of the questions from a study mentioned in the New York Times. But what Daniel doesn't realize is that time is running out for them. Are they destined to be together? Can Fate intervene?

Discussion

The Sun Is Also A Star is a beautifully crafted novel that explores the way our lives are inexplicably interconnected to one another. Throughout the tapestry that is woven in this story, Nicole Yoon asks her readers to consider the role of God, Fate or chance in what often seems like random encounters in our lives.

The central characters are Jamaican born, illegal immigrant Natasha Kingsley and Korean-American Daniel Jae Ho Bae. Around them revolve a cast of smaller characters that include Natasha's father Samuel, Daniel's brother Charlie and his father, Dae Hyun Bae, Irene a security guard at USCIS, the train conductor, the BMW driver Donald Christiansen, Attorney Jeremy Fitzgerald, his assistant Hannah Winter, a Korean waitress, and the building security guard named Joe. Although Daniel and Natasha affect each others lives significantly so do the other characters and in particular one character who plays an unexpected part in bringing them back together.

Like the string art on the novel's front cover, Yoon weaves a set of colourful, imaginative narratives together that portray the desperation of a girl to stay in America while demonstrating the threads that connect us all. The Sun Is Also A Star brilliantly demonstrates how we are all interconnected and asks us to consider the origin of the meetings that happen between people. Are these encounters coincidence, random acts that happen in the universe or do they happen due to Fate, destiny or God? Of course the main encounter in the novel is that of Daniel and Natasha. Were they destined to meet and fall in love or was it just random chance?

The two main characters view life very differently and thus approach this question very differently. Natasha is intelligent and practical. Like most people today, she doesn't "like temporary, nonprovable things, and romantic love is both temporary and nonprovable." While her mother believes everything happens for a reason, and her father prefers to see the hand of God in things, Natasha believes "that life is just a random series of good and bad things that happen until one day you die. There is no fate, no destiny, no meant-to-be." Natasha believes she's a realist: "It's better to see life as it is, not as you wish it to be. Things don't happen for a reason. They just happen." Natasha intends to be a data scientist but she feels this choice is not destiny. "I chose this career. It didn't choose me. I'm not fated to be a data scientist...I did research on growing fields in the sciences...No fate."

Practical Natasha believes the "poetic heart, the heart of love songs and soliloquies...is fickle and will lead you astray. It will tell you that all you need is love and dreams." Despite this, Natasha's "fickle, nonpractical, non-future-considering, nonsensical heart wants Daniel. I know there's no such thing as meant-to-be and yet here I am wondering if maybe I've been wrong." This sets up an intense conflict within Natasha who believes that "love is just chemicals and coincidence."  Natasha believes in "determinism -- cause and effect. One action leads to another leads to another. Your actions determine your fate." She views the actions of one individual human as inconsequential compared to the forces at work in the vast universe. 

In contrast, Daniel, an aspiring poet  challenges Natasha's practical, less passionate outlook on life. "We are capable of big lives...Why choose the practical thing, the mundane thing? We are born to dream and make the things we dream about." Unlike Natasha, Daniel believes in love and shortly after meeting her, he's certain he's going to fall in love with her. Daniel believes in Fate or destiny - their meeting might have been by chance but once it happened, falling in love was inevitable. When Natasha reveals that she is hours from being deported, Daniel is deeply hurt. He struggles and wonders if "Life is just a series of dumb decisions and indecisions and coincidences that we choose to ascribe meaning to."  He considers what Natasha told him that he's looking for someone to rescue him from his life because then the decisions about his future will be out of his control. "It won't be me defying my parents. It will be Fate." 

But Daniel's faith that something else is at work in their lives is rekindled when he and Natasha find each other a second time that day - he returns to the building where she had the interview while she goes back to his house hoping to meet him there. Perhaps it is destiny or Fate that intervenes but Daniel's brother does the only good thing he will do for his brother in his life, he gives Daniel's phone number to Natasha. They discover yet another coincidence - Daniel's interview is in the same building as Natasha's lawyer and that the interview is with her lawyer, a Yale alumnus.While Daniel believes in God and that the connection people share with one another represents God, Natasha believes only in science to explain that connection. When it becomes apparent that Natasha will have to leave, Daniel has succeeded in his quest but while he hopes there will be "something else that could lead them back to each other" someday. For Natasha, maybe meant to be isn't forever.

 Themes and ideas from Natasha's narratives are explored further in separate chapters. For example, when Natasha meets with Lester Barnes at the Immigration office he makes reference to the Jamaican term "irie" which means good or pleasant. He tells Natasha of his limited Jamaican experience, "I had a nice time. Everything is irie there. You'll be all right." But in the chapter titled "irie. An etymological history" Natasha explores the meaning of irie, but also how words can mean one thing to one person -like Barnes, but a totally different thing to another person. Barnes really doesn't know or understand the Jamaican concept of irie in the same way that Natasha might. "A word can start off meaning one thing and end up meaning another. Is it from overuse and oversimplification, like the way irie is taught to tourists at Jamaican resorts? Is it from misuse, like the way Natasha's father's been using it lately?"

Yoon also shows her readers how the slightest of our actions can influence another person in ways we might not know. Irene who is the security guard at USCIS loves her job because it is the sole source of connection with other people in her life. She slows down each bin she needs to search, forcing people to "look up and meet her eyes." Irene decides that she will kill herself, something she's been contemplating for some time. However, Natasha, believing that Attorney Fitzgerald can save her family from deportation, decides to phone Lester Barnes asking him to thank Irene. Her delaying Natasha getting through security resulted in the chain of events that led her to meeting Daniel. Barnes call to Irene ultimately saves her life, leads her to start on a new path and results in her, years later helping to reunite Daniel and Natasha.

The Sun Is Also A Star is another brilliant, beautiful novel by Nicola Yoon. Her stories are engaging, thoughtful and remarkably well crafted. Nicola Yoon grew up in Jamaica and also in Brooklyn New York. Her second novel makes her a force to be reckoned with in young adult literature.

Book Details:

The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon
Canada: Doubleday Canada    2016
344 pp.

Imperfect Spiral by Debbie Levy

Imperfect Spiral is a poignant story about a girl struggling to come to terms with a terrible accident during her summer holidays. Imperfect Spiral is really two stories interwoven; the story of five year old Humphrey T. Danker and his fifteen year old babysitter, Danielle (Danny) Snyder during the summer, and the story of what happens to Danny, her family and her town as a result of the accident. The events which occur over the summer and into the month of September, are narrated by Danny with the story of Humphrey and Danny told in flashback.  

The novel opens in the immediate aftermath of the accident. Fifteen-year-old Danny is trying to cope with the horror that has overtaken her life - the death of little Humphrey, whom she has nicknamed "Humpty". Danielle's job for the summer had been to babysit five-year-old Humphrey, the son of a prominent Washington, DC lawyer known for arguing cases that have come before the Supreme Court. Humphrey's mother has seen her breast cancer return a third time and she needs someone to care for Humphrey while she undergoes treatments.

One summer evening while walking home along Quarry Road in the Franklin Grove neighbourhood, Humphrey is struck by a blue minivan. Those living along Quarry Road rush out to help; Mrs. McGillcudy brings a blanket, Mr. and Mrs. Stashowers control the bystanders and Mrs. Raskin asks if Humphrey's parents, Tom and Clarice, have been contacted. All the while, Danny cradles Humphrey's head in her hands until EMS arrive. After being checked out at the hospital, Danny is questioned at home by two police officers about what happened. She tells them that she and Humphrey were walking home when she dropped the football she was carrying. Its crazy bounce sent Humphrey into the street after it, causing him to be hit by the minivan. After talking with the police, Danny learns that Humphrey has died and she is utterly devastated.

Danny's family and friends rally around her after the death of Humphrey, including those friends she has lost touch with. Her best "friend", Becca Sherman, texts her from the summer camp where she is a counselor-in-training (CIT).  Becca and Danny have attended both regular and Sunday school together, and had their Bat Mitzvahs together but over time they began to drift apart. Becca has tried to encourage Danny to come out of her shell, to join student council and be a part of student life at Western High, all to no avail. Becca wanted Danny to be a CIT with her, but she refused. Now Becca is reaching out to Danny, attempting to help her through a difficult time.

Danny's other friend, Marissa Martinez calls her after seven months of silence. Danny had a falling out with Marissa over her views about Danny's brother, Adrian. Adrian left home when he was four credits short of his high school diploma. He has a confrontational relationship with their parents who tried to plan out his life. He now works odd jobs and has signed on as a plumber's apprentice. Adrian begins coming home more frequently to help Danny cope with the tragedy. During his visits, Adrian reveals to Danny that he piecing his life back together on his own term.

After the accident, in what appears to be a chance meeting Danny sees a boy, Justin, at the park where she and Humphrey used to play. This park is full of memories for Danny because they made it into their special place, creating an imaginary world called Thrumble-Boo. Justin is from the nearby community of Montgomery Heights and Danny is puzzled as to why he is at the park in Franklin Grove. Justin tells her that he often comes to play ball with his buddies. After meeting a few times, Justin calls Danny at home to arrange to meet for coffee and they soon start to date. But it turns out that Justin has other reasons for meeting Danny, and that he has been harbouring a dark secret that draws him into what happened on Quarry Road.

As Danny struggles to cope with her feelings of guilt over Humphrey's death, the community becomes embroiled in a discussion about illegal immigrants after it is learned that the driver of the blue minivan was Eugene Folgar Guzman, an illegal immigrant whose student visa expired a decade earlier. Others in the community want sidewalks and better lighting installed along the road. Danny becomes distraught over the controversy because she feels lighting, sidewalks and more enforcement on illegal immigrants would not have saved Humphrey. It was her carelessness that resulted in his death not the lack of lighting or the presence of illegal immigrants in their community.

Meanwhile, as Danny struggles with her guilt and shame, she remembers her time with Humphrey over the summer. Humphrey proves to be a delightful child, both creative and inquisitive who seems to be largely ignored by his cerebral father whose focus is on correct grammar and proper manners. And with his gravely ill mother preoccupied with her health problems, it falls to Danny to fill in emotionally where she can. When Danny throws a football to him, Humphrey wants to throw one too, but his throws never "spiral" like Danny's do, despite her trying repeatedly to teach him. So instead she teaches him to catch a football first. In a very touching passage, Danny struggles to understand why Humphrey isn't able to catch the ball, until she hits on a novel idea that helps Humphrey master the feat. This inspires Humphrey to continue working on trying to throw a perfect spiral - the main goal of his life as a five year old.

Eventually Danny is sent to see a therapist, Dr. Gilbert, who helps her to work through her feelings of guilt and grief over Humphrey but also to help her discover why she has made her life so narrow. In the town though, the accident draws the community into a battle against immigrants. Danny refuses to attend the community meeting, although she does sneak in to see what happens. Later Danny is asked to testify at the Megis County Council hearing into the possible improvements on Quarry Road.   At first Danny refuses, but then she makes a brave decision to take a stand, to tell her story and what she really thinks. She decides to be an activist, like her friend Becca has insisted she has been all along. Perhaps this path will lead to forgiveness and healing for Danny.

Discussion

Imperfect Spiral is one of the best novels for young adults in recent years. Author Debbie Levy captures her readers' attention from the very beginning with the story of the fatal accident and then proceeds to fill in the details through flashbacks. Woven between these details are the struggles of Danny, Adrian, Justin, and the Dankers.

The writing is engaging and sensitive, capturing not only the guilt and remorse of a teenage girl, but also portraying a sensitive little boy who thinks a bit differently from those around him. Humphrey is a character readers will easily fall in love with, making his death all the more tragic. And yet as we read about his days with Danny and even at the end of the novel, his very last day, Humphrey's life is a triumph. He finds beauty in the simplest things and looks at the world with a sense of innocence. Levy succeeds brilliantly with the character of Humphrey because she makes her readers adore this little boy -  he's truly unforgettable. He is the boy who loves the purple velour pants he sees in the store when they go shopping for a gift for his mother - pants that Humphrey says "bring him to tears".

The main character of the novel, Danny, embarks on a journey of rediscovery and Humphrey and his death help her do just that. When her older brother Adrian left, Danny felt like she lost a part of herself.  She begins to close herself off from people and stops believing in herself. Her time with Humphrey reveals Danny as a perceptive young woman who cares about people. Humphrey's death and the resulting manipulation of the council meetings by people with their own agendas forces Danny to step out of her shell and to find her voice once again - if Humphrey's death is to have any sort of meaning.

The themes of healing and forgiveness are paramount in this novel. Danny begins to learn to forgive herself and try to heal from the loss of Humphrey - a little boy with whom she had a tender relationship. She must also forgive her friends for abandoning her but acknowledge her own responsibility in pushing them away. Tom Danker reaches out to forgive Danny, allowing her to begin to heal, recognizing that he didn't treat Humphrey well over the summer. Adrian also began to reconcile with his parents because he was able to live his life on his terms and not those dictated by his parents.  

Even on a community level, there is a need for forgiveness; many people in the community want the Guzman's arrested and deported as illegal aliens even though they have now lived in America for over a decade and their children are completely innocent. People reasoned that if Guzman wasn't in the country he would not have hit Humphrey but Levy counters this argument by having Guzman's son save a man's life, demonstrating that this argument is a straw man. Choices in life have both good and bad consequences and it's impossible to predict which will come about.

The theme of friendship is also important in Imperfect Spiral. There's the special friendship Danny had with Humphrey despite their age difference. And then there is the friendship that Danny had with Becca. Danny was intimidated by Becca's ambition and her plans for her life. But Danny didn't have those kinds of plans yet and she wasn't as sure about her future as Becca seems to be. When her brother Adrian left, Danny began to limit herself because she didn't want to outshine her older brother. Her life got smaller and her friend Becca recognized this change but couldn't seem to help. It's only when Danny talks with Dr. Gilbert that she begins to understand this. Humphrey's death provides the motivation she needs.

Imperfect Spiral is a wonderful novel that is such a refreshing change from the typical young adult fare.  The book's cover is puzzling. It should have featured a playground with roundabout, perhaps incorporating a bumblebee mounted on springs and a football. These figured prominently in the novel and would seem to be more relevant to the story.

Book Details:
Imperfect Spiral by Debbie Levy
New York: Walker Books An Imprint of Bloomsbury
339 pp.

Illegal by Bettina Restrepo

When Nora Mirales' father promises to be home for her fifteenth birthday, her quinceanera, Nora cannot wait. A period of drought and the diversion of the river by southern Texas, has resulted in crop failure for farmers in Cedula, Mexico. Nora's family are no longer able to make a living selling grapefruit from their orchard at the local market and there are no local jobs. So her father decides to enter the United States illegally to find work to support his family.

At first things go well and he sends money and calls home. He tells the family that there is plenty of work but that they work long days. Nora's mother tells him that the crops are bad, the taxes are late and that she wants to come to America. However, soon the calls stop and so does the money. Unable to pay their taxes on the land, Nora and her mother decide to follow him to Texas in the hope of finding out what has happened.

Nora and her mother arrange to be driven into Texas in the back of a truck carrying crates of mangoes. Stuffed in the back of a stifling metal container, they travel to Houston. The journey is a long, uncomfortable one full of uncertainty and fear. Nora's mother prays the rosary and tries to comfort her terrified daughter.  When they arrive in Houston, the driver is shocked to see that Nora is in the trailer; Nora's mother had only paid for herself. Also Nora's mother is now ill. Demanding payment for Nora, the driver threatens to turn them into the police, but Nora and her mother manage to escape.

The find their way to a restaurant, a taqueria, where they order breakfast. They are dirty, hungry and thirsty but the waitress is very kind to them. The waitress, Cecilia, warns Nora not to get involved in the local gangs as many of the young girls have done here. Cecilia also directs them to her cousin, Yolanda's home where she has rooms to rent. But when they arrive at the home they find that the room is dirty and smelly. Desperate for a place to live, they decide to take it. They exchange their pesos for American dollars and also arrange to have false work papers done up. Now the struggle to find work begins, but soon Nora and her mother find work with couple, Manuela and her husband, Jorge, who run fruit stands at Quitman Park. Jorge hires Nora who bears an uncanny resemblance to their missing daughter, Tessa. Nora also makes a good friend with a younger girl named Keisha who is black and who is looked down upon by the local Mexicans.

With a place to stay and jobs, Nora and her mother now set out to find out what has happened to their father and husband, Arturo Mirales. They follow a trail of leads that suggests illegal immigrants are treated poorly, working in unsafe conditions and poorly paid. Along the way Nora and her mother must cope with discrimination, fear of discovery that they are illegal immigrants and the gangs that plague the city.

Discussion  

Illegal, a short novel, effectively portrays life for illegal immigrants in America, demonstrating that life is generally not what they thought it would be. Illegal immigrants face loneliness and isolation in a strange culture they do not understand and they are often at risk for abuse by employers and involvement in crime including gangs, prostitution and drug trafficking.

Author Bettina Restrepo also suggests that illegal immigration in America is also partly due to American policies and decisions, and inaction by the Mexican government. There are hints that the Morales life was a good one until the river supplying their village with water was dammed on the American side. This combined with drier summers caused crop failure and poverty, resulting in the villagers seeing illegal immigration as the only option available to them.

Nora is a strong character, who believes that with hard work she can succeed - an attitude typical of many immigrants to both America and Canada. Her faith in God and the support of her family, her mother and grandmother, help her cope with the predictable outcome of their investigation into the whereabouts of her father and life in America.

Illegal is a strong novel that presents a wide range of issues involved in illegal immigration using believable characters and a strong protagonist.

Book Details:
Illegal by Bettina Restropo
Katherine Tegen Books    2011
251 pp.