Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.54 AVERAGE
4.54 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
I was gobsmacked by this book. The way it is written made me feel 9 years old but at the same time I was reading it as if I were his mother, not knowing where her son was for all those months, knowing he was on such an incredibly dangerous journey.
But it was Patricia and Chino’s love for Javier, this boy they didn’t even know but protected as if he were their own. A mother already struggling to protect her own daughter generous enough to take in another and a teenage boy who carried this kid on his back for miles and miles across the desert. So many awful things could’ve happened to him but didn’t because of their protection. How Javier didn’t fully understand what they did for him but grasped the magnitude as an adult, it brought me to my knees. May we all treat every child we meet with that mercy and care. May every stranger my own child ever meets protect her with the goodness of Chino and Patricia. May every child crossing be watched over the way Javier was. And may our world get to the point where no child ever has to make this dangerous journey.
But it was Patricia and Chino’s love for Javier, this boy they didn’t even know but protected as if he were their own. A mother already struggling to protect her own daughter generous enough to take in another and a teenage boy who carried this kid on his back for miles and miles across the desert. So many awful things could’ve happened to him but didn’t because of their protection. How Javier didn’t fully understand what they did for him but grasped the magnitude as an adult, it brought me to my knees. May we all treat every child we meet with that mercy and care. May every stranger my own child ever meets protect her with the goodness of Chino and Patricia. May every child crossing be watched over the way Javier was. And may our world get to the point where no child ever has to make this dangerous journey.
Audiobook read by the author, Javier Zamora. I was in El Salvador in 1998 for about four months, just before the events in this memoir began. I know many people through work and personal life who immigrated from El Salvador to the US. I have heard they crossed en Nogales, or Tucson, or “La Frontera,” but I have never been gifted a story of the journey in the way Javier Zamora has gifted us. His diary style portrayal of his migration from El Salvador through Guatemala, Mexico, and the desert border lands is told in poetic language, but always from the honest innocence of his nine year old self. He doesn’t try to explain the things he didn’t understand as a child, focusing instead on the colors, smells, sights, sounds, and feelings- emotional and physical- of the journey. I highly recommend the audio version because Spanish is laced throughout the book and much emphasis on the different accents he heard and tried to adopt to sound Guatemalan and Mexican. As a person with a connection to the Pulgarcito de Centro America, me encanté y me dolía el corazón a leer este cuento verdadero de la migración a “la USA.”
Also obsessively following Javier Zamora on all the socials and I will be searching for his poetry.
Also obsessively following Javier Zamora on all the socials and I will be searching for his poetry.
I listened to this on audiobook, and I am so glad I did. To read/hear about this journey through the eyes of 9 year old Javier both lightens the subject some (his pointing out the plants and naming them, not being able to tie his shoes, and other things) and also makes it all the more heartbreaking (I was particularly broken over his wanting a hug and not having someone to give him one). I highly recommend this book.
A tough read that has left me in tears. But beautifully written and an important story that will stay with me for every discussion on migration going forward.
Gifted to me by a friend. (Books are the best gift.) I’ve never read an immigration story, and I’ve only read a handful of Latino stories - period. Solito is a complete, detailed account of nine-year-old Zamora’s journey from El Salvador to “La USA”. Now, I want to read his poetry collection and watch any of his interviews.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
A slow start as the arrangements for the trip are made, highly intense once he begins his journey. Just WOW! What a journey for a 9-year-old. There is a lot of Spanish from the middle and on, I'm not sure if beginners or even just those unfamiliar with Salvadoran slang will be able to keep up (audiobook worked for me, I highly recommend).
I appreciated reading a memoir from the perspective of a 9 year old migrating from El Salvador to the US. It took him 7 weeks to get there and as traumatizing as it must’ve been for him, I was hoping I’d be more emotional reading it all but I wasn’t. Not sure why. I suspect he may have kept a lot out. It did get a bit repetitive towards the end. Wasn’t a fan of the end (wanted more after he’d arrived) but overall it was a good book. I can see middle schoolers enjoying it for school.
ugly cried listening to the end of this in the car. what an incredible and heartbreaking journey. audiobook is recorded by the author which made it even more special.
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced