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First-generation American LatinX Liliana Cruz does what it takes to fit in at her new nearly all-white school. But when family secrets spill out and racism at school ramps up, she must decide what she believes in and take a stand.
Liliana Cruz is a hitting a wall—or rather, walls.
There's the wall her mom has put up ever since Liliana's dad left—again.
There's the wall that delineates Liliana's diverse inner-city Boston neighborhood from Westburg, the wealthy—and white—suburban high school she's just been accepted into.
And there's the wall Liliana creates within herself, because to survive at Westburg, she can't just lighten up, she has to whiten up.
So what if she changes her name? So what if she changes the way she talks? So what if she's seeing her neighborhood in a different way? But then light is shed on some hard truths: It isn't that her father doesn't want to come home—he can't...and her whole family is in jeopardy. And when racial tensions at school reach a fever pitch, the walls that divide feel insurmountable.
But a wall isn't always a barrier. It can be a foundation for something better. And Liliana must choose: Use this foundation as a platform to speak her truth, or risk crumbling under its weight.
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
August 18, 2020 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781797100647
- File size: 246522 KB
- Duration: 08:33:35
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Languages
- English
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Levels
- Lexile® Measure: 590
- Text Difficulty: 2-3
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Reviews
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August 10, 2020
Things are tense at home for 15-year-old Liliana Cruz: her father has been gone for weeks, her mother is increasingly depressed but won’t tell her why, and she’s recently been accepted into a program she didn’t even know her parents signed her up for: METCO, a high school “desegregation program.” Now she must wake up at 5 a.m. to catch the bus from diverse inner-city Boston to a predominantly white and wealthy suburban high school. With her distracted best friend Jade wrapped up in a new boyfriend and the other METCO kids ignoring her, Liliana has to find her own way in Westburg High. But just as she
makes friends with sarcastic Holly and starts a romance with a seemingly sweet white boy named Dustin, her new equilibrium is thrown off-kilter by an incident of racism and the well-wrought, devastating revelation of where her father really is. De Leon’s debut handles issues such as immigration, deportation, assimilation, and Trump-era racial tensions in a humorous yet resonant way. Throughout, Liliana’s narration remains authentic as she finds her voice, making for a fulfilling, thoroughly contemporary read. Ages 14–up. Agent: Faye Bender, the Book Group. -
Narrator In�s del Castillo gives 15-year-old Lilliana an authentic-sounding voice as she speaks directly to the listener. This timely novel examines immigration, legal and illegal, as well as the shortcomings of well-meaning but poorly executed attempts to diversify schools. Del Castillo's teenage vernacular is realistic as Lilliana deals with a life-changing opportunity and the uncovering of family secrets. Years ago, her parents signed her up for METCO, a program that gives inner-city Boston students an opportunity to attend a better suburban school. Finally, sophomore year, she's in. Del Castillo captures Lillianna's varied emotions as she tries to fit in among the wealthy suburbanites, learns her family's secrets, finds her voice, and moves to connect her worlds. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
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