The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. YA)Ī Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart. Taking matters into his own hands, Tyler decides that he must make a choice about what kind of man he wants to be, with or without his father’s guidance. As tension mounts, Tyler reaches a crisis point revealed through one of the most poignant and gripping scenes in young-adult literature. Unfortunately, his newfound notoriety as a “bad boy” leads to false accusations that land him-and his father’s job-in hot water. Despite the graffiti incident, though, Tyler is a conscientious, albeit confused, young man, trying to find his way.

His new image and buff physique attracts Bethany-the über-popular daughter of his father’s boss-but his angry and distant father becomes even more hostile towards him.

Tyler was always the kind of guy who didn’t stand out until he spends the summer before his senior year working as punishment for spray painting the school. Anderson returns to weightier issues in the style of her most revered work, Speak (1999), and stretches her wings by offering up a male protagonist for the first time.

Twisted laurie halse