Casi alcanzar todo (Barely Missing Everything)
Written by Matt Mendez
Published by Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
Juan tiene grandes planes.
Va a ser el muchacho de El Paso que salió adelante, va a conseguir esa beca de basquetbol para ir a la universidad y va hacer algo de su vida… algo mejor que la sarta de novios nefastos de Fabi, su mamá. Sólo necesita hacerlo realidad.
El mejor amigo de Juan, JD, también tiene planes.
Algún día va a ser cineasta, como Tarantino o Del Toro (no Spielberg). Tiene una cámara y tiene pasión. ¿Qué más se necesita?
Fabi ya no tiene planes.
Cuando te embarazas a los dieciséis, descubres que los planes no siempre salen y que hay algunas cosas que no puedes anticipar…
Como un altercado con la policía. Como la implosión de tu familia. Como un pasado que regresa a perseguirte. Como el temor de que tú, tu hijo y todos los que amas no van a alcanzar todo…no van a alcanzar nada.
Juan has plans. He’s going to get out of El Paso, Texas, on a basketball scholarship and make something of himself—or at least find something better than his mom Fabi’s cruddy apartment, her string of loser boyfriends, and a dead dad. Basketball is going to be his ticket out, his ticket up. He just needs to make it happen.
His best friend JD has plans, too. He’s going to be a filmmaker one day, like Quinten Tarantino or Guillermo del Toro (NOT Steven Spielberg). He’s got a camera and he’s got passion—what else could he need?
Fabi doesn’t have a plan anymore. When you get pregnant at sixteen and have been stuck bartending to make ends meet for the past seventeen years, you realize plans don’t always pan out, and that there are some things you just can’t plan for…
Like Juan’s run-in with the police, like a sprained ankle, and a tanking math grade that will likely ruin his chance at a scholarship. Like JD causing the implosion of his family. Like letters from a man named Mando on death row. Like finding out this man could be the father your mother said was dead.
Soon Juan and JD are embarking on a Thelma and Louise–like road trip to visit Mando. Juan will finally meet his dad, JD has a perfect subject for his documentary, and Fabi is desperate to stop them. But, as we already know, there are some things you just can’t plan for…
Primary ISBN: 9781534461567
Available As: Hardcover, Paperback
Young Adult, Age 14 or older
Community Represented: Mexican/Mexican American
Themes: Family Relationship: Parents, Loss of Childhood, Non-English Book: Spanish, Own Voices/Lived Experience, Trauma & Healing: Death of Family or Friend
Setting: United States (Texas)
Character’s New Arrival/New American Status: Unknown Arrival
Book Creator(s) Connection to the Community Represented: Own Voices/Lived Experience
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