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eirenophile 's review for:
Yo, Naomi León (Becoming Naomi Leon)
by Pam Muñoz Ryan
I wanted to give this book three stars, because I really LIKED Naomi and I liked her brother and grandmother and friend Blanca. I liked the central conflict about being un/loved by parents/family. I don't know much about disability, but I liked the way it was presented as any other trial except for the person who was so blinded by her own prejudice she couldn't even really see how it would impact her life let alone her son's.
What I didn't like, and yeah, this is spoilery, is that the villains in this were so utterly completely irredeemable. And a big part of their irredeemability was the fact that they were so obviously aching to use their kids to bilk the government out of support money. But not actually CARE for their children, just use them. To get money. Because, you know, you get so much money from the government for having kids. And of course the good caretaker, the grandmother, who lived in a trailer (within her means) had never even THOUGHT of asking the government for help. And when she does, it's only for legal defense, and that HARDLY counts as welfare, right? Ugh. The main characters are poor, but that isn't really a problem for them, because they're doing things the "right way."
And I wanted to like that the good parent, at least, was the Mexican national, so a reversal of the recent demonization of immigrants, right? But no ... because he DIDN'T move to the U.S., even though he could have made more money here. And the family stayed broken up, but at least they got to write letters to each other!?
Ultimately, the underlying "morality" that demonized individuals who accept help from the state (the state that has so much to do with creating the very economic structures the characters are struggling within) just ruined my sense of happiness in the otherwise heartwarming story.
What I didn't like, and yeah, this is spoilery, is that the villains in this were so utterly completely irredeemable. And a big part of their irredeemability was the fact that they were so obviously aching to use their kids to bilk the government out of support money. But not actually CARE for their children, just use them. To get money. Because, you know, you get so much money from the government for having kids. And of course the good caretaker, the grandmother, who lived in a trailer (within her means) had never even THOUGHT of asking the government for help. And when she does, it's only for legal defense, and that HARDLY counts as welfare, right? Ugh. The main characters are poor, but that isn't really a problem for them, because they're doing things the "right way."
And I wanted to like that the good parent, at least, was the Mexican national, so a reversal of the recent demonization of immigrants, right? But no ... because he DIDN'T move to the U.S., even though he could have made more money here. And the family stayed broken up, but at least they got to write letters to each other!?
Ultimately, the underlying "morality" that demonized individuals who accept help from the state (the state that has so much to do with creating the very economic structures the characters are struggling within) just ruined my sense of happiness in the otherwise heartwarming story.