The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya

 

Arturo Zamora is looking forward to a simple summer of ice cream, friends, family, and working at his family's Cuban restaurant La Cocina de la Isla. Things become more complicated when Carmen, his mother's goddaughter, comes to visit, when his Abuela, who founded the family restaurant and is the community matriarch, becomes ill, and the family restaurant is imperiled when a developer comes to town and wants to takeover their property. Arturo needs to muster the courage to face his first love, and to stand up to a narcissistic developer whose self-interest is veiled by a concern for the community. Arturo finds the courage through his love of his Abuela, a box of letters left to him by his Abuelo, and the poetry of José Martí.

Pablo Cartaya has written a simple story, well suited to middle school, with complex overtones; gentrification, first love, courage, as well as devotion to family and community. The plot is linear and mostly dialogue, told in Arturo's voice. My favorite part of the book is when Arturo's Abuela gives him a box of letters and artifacts from his now deceased Abuelo. The letters are loving, wise and heartwarming; words that Arturo needs to face his conflicts. The prose is interspersed with Spanish, which adds to the color and character of the story. The Spanish is deftly interwoven with the text so the non-Spanish reader will understand the words. Intentional or not, the character of the developer seems vaguely similar to our current president!

Mark's Book Picks Score: 4

Reading Level: 5 • Interest Level: 5-8 • AR Points: 7 • Lexile Level: 750 • Publisher: Penguin • Pages: 236 • Copyright: 2018 • ISBN: 978-1-10-199725-3 • Available in Perma-Bound Binding

Spin by Lamar Giles

 

Reaching celebrity at an early age is enticing, but there is much one can lose; loss of family and friends, loss of anonymity, loss of control over your life, and in the case of 16 year old Paris Secord, known as DJ ParSec, loss of her life.

Up and coming DJ, Paris Secord, is found dead, hunched over her turntable by two friends that are also bitter enemies of each other. Kya is a former childhood friend of Paris, who helped her at the beginning of her music career with recording and technology. A falling out has separated them. Fuse, a more recent friend, was in charge of Paris' social media, until she was booted by an agent that Paris hired. Both girls are questioned as suspects, but released. Both girls are torn by their hatred of each other and their mutual grief for Paris.

The two girls are forced together when they are kidnapped by Paris' loyal fandom, called the Dark Nation. The Dark Nation is not happy with the police investigation and wants Kya and Fuse to work together to find the murderer. Bitter enemies are forced to deal with their anger, grief and hatred to delve into Paris' business, relationships, and history to find the murder.

Spin's plot plods along slowly at first, and little is revealed in the first half of the book as it  focuses on the relationships between Kya, Fuse, and Paris. Things pick up in the second half, and then all comes down quickly at the end. The writing is okay, rather perfunctory to me, but gets the job done. I like that these are African American teens, but race has little to do with the story.

Mark's Book Picks Score: 3.5

Reading Level: 5.0  •  Interest Level: 7-12 • AR Points: 13  •  Lexile Level: 680 •  Publisher: Scholastic • Pages: 387 • Copyright: 2020 • ISBN: 978-1-338-58218-5 • Available in Perma-Bound Binding