Take a photo of a barcode or cover
witchybooksnake 's review for:
Detained: A boy's journal of survival and resilience
by D. Esperanza, Gerardo Iván Morales
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
This is the kind of book that will be used in history classes. It feels wrong to say I enjoyed this book despite giving this 5 stars, better descriptors would be agitated, sad, and uncomfortable. While people in this country (USA) were arguing over dinner tables about human rights, CHILDREN were experiencing torturous conditions and one of those hundreds of thousands of children picked up a pen to stay sane through the experience.
This journal style memoir follows one kid’s journey crossing multiple international borders to reach his family in Nashville, TN under Donald Trump’s presidency in 2018. After losing their last guardian to illness, D., 13 and his 11 year old brother venture to leave Honduras to find his mother and father in Nashville. Along the way they meet up with cousins around the same age in Guatemala and continue the trek north. Throughout this all, D. keeps a black wide ruled notebook and documents his journey in what now offers a first hand account of the trials of crossing borders, and child detention centers through the eyes of a child.
While reading this book I was horrified by the amount of laughter the grown adults could muster while watching children suffer. I’m reminded that not everyone has the same capability of empathy that I expect people to. Reading this book felt like the first time I read Anne Frank’s Diary in school. It doesn’t make sense. Yet despite the amount of hatred and enjoyment some people had towards these children suffering, there were so many good people he wrote about as well. People who saw children struggling and gave what they could without expectations. The author stays positive through most of this book and looking back says that “the world is also filled with Ivans, and Nancys, and Ulys. It’s full of generous souls that give needy kids oranges, tamales, rosaries, and pineapple empanadas.” It’s inspiring to see the reminder that good people do exist. While detained in one of many different prisons D. met a worker named Ivan who treated the kids differently than the others and became like a brother to the author. At the end of the book there is a note written by Ivan that is worth the read, I would not skip it.
This journal style memoir follows one kid’s journey crossing multiple international borders to reach his family in Nashville, TN under Donald Trump’s presidency in 2018. After losing their last guardian to illness, D., 13 and his 11 year old brother venture to leave Honduras to find his mother and father in Nashville. Along the way they meet up with cousins around the same age in Guatemala and continue the trek north. Throughout this all, D. keeps a black wide ruled notebook and documents his journey in what now offers a first hand account of the trials of crossing borders, and child detention centers through the eyes of a child.
While reading this book I was horrified by the amount of laughter the grown adults could muster while watching children suffer. I’m reminded that not everyone has the same capability of empathy that I expect people to. Reading this book felt like the first time I read Anne Frank’s Diary in school. It doesn’t make sense. Yet despite the amount of hatred and enjoyment some people had towards these children suffering, there were so many good people he wrote about as well. People who saw children struggling and gave what they could without expectations. The author stays positive through most of this book and looking back says that “the world is also filled with Ivans, and Nancys, and Ulys. It’s full of generous souls that give needy kids oranges, tamales, rosaries, and pineapple empanadas.” It’s inspiring to see the reminder that good people do exist. While detained in one of many different prisons D. met a worker named Ivan who treated the kids differently than the others and became like a brother to the author. At the end of the book there is a note written by Ivan that is worth the read, I would not skip it.