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A review by okiecozyreader
Solito by Javier Zamora
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-paced
5.0
“Trip, my parents started using that word about a year ago - “one day you’ll take a trip to be with us. Like an adventure. Like the one Simba goes on before he comes home.” Around the same time they sent me Aladdin, Jurassic Park and The Lion King…”
This first paragraph blows your mind as you think about a nine year old boy, leaving on this “trip” from El Salvador to the United States, by himself, with a network of Coyotes.
This was all written from his point of view as a child. It seems amazing what he was able to remember, or put together from his memories and journals, because it reads like a novel. His bravery and how he trusted and stayed the course through multiple setbacks.
He shares what he did each day of this 9 week journey (and a little before that, as his family waited for instructions). We see the love of his grandfather and his found family during the trip who gave him a sense of safety and belonging.
We are so fortunate to have his story, an El Salvadoran immigrant or migrant. His success and stories are just one example of how our system doesn’t work and it is so sad he and his family went through all of this.
https://www.today.com/video/jenna-bush-hager-talks-with-javier-zamora-about-memoir-solito-147808325782
He recommends THE LINE BECOMES A RIVER by a former border patrol agent who became a friend, CHILDREN OF THE LAND by Marcelo
Hernández Castillo and BROWN NEON (and also THERE THERE by Tommy Orange and HOW TO SAY BABYLON by Safiya Sinclair).
This first paragraph blows your mind as you think about a nine year old boy, leaving on this “trip” from El Salvador to the United States, by himself, with a network of Coyotes.
This was all written from his point of view as a child. It seems amazing what he was able to remember, or put together from his memories and journals, because it reads like a novel. His bravery and how he trusted and stayed the course through multiple setbacks.
He shares what he did each day of this 9 week journey (and a little before that, as his family waited for instructions). We see the love of his grandfather and his found family during the trip who gave him a sense of safety and belonging.
We are so fortunate to have his story, an El Salvadoran immigrant or migrant. His success and stories are just one example of how our system doesn’t work and it is so sad he and his family went through all of this.
https://www.today.com/video/jenna-bush-hager-talks-with-javier-zamora-about-memoir-solito-147808325782
He recommends THE LINE BECOMES A RIVER by a former border patrol agent who became a friend, CHILDREN OF THE LAND by Marcelo
Hernández Castillo and BROWN NEON (and also THERE THERE by Tommy Orange and HOW TO SAY BABYLON by Safiya Sinclair).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Deportation