Language: R (43 swears, 2 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
When Danny kills himself, it surprises everyone, and May’s family falls apart without him. Summer eventually ends and May starts junior year; it seems like everyone else has moved on. Then a father at a school function calls out Danny, their family, and their race as a problem. Is it better for May to say what she feels or to let silence bind her, her family, and other minorities?
Ho writes about depression, grief, racism, and all the complicated thoughts and feelings that go into living with and speaking about them. As May learns to tell her story through poems and through public speaking, she also learns about where she came from and how racism has impacted more than just her family. Speaking up starts as a defense of family, and May has to decide if she just wants to defend or if she wants to try to implement change. It becomes a question that readers also have to answer. Is reading this book going to change you and what you do, or is it just a well-written story?
May and Danny are Chinese on their dad’s side and Taiwanese on their mom’s side. Tiya and Marc are Haitian. While the school and town they are in are predominately white, most of the named characters are not. The mature content rating is for underage drinking, mentions of drugs, and innuendo. The violence rating is for persistent discussion of suicide.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen
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