THE FACTS:
Title: We Were Here
Author: Matt De La Peña
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 368
Round of applause:
Round of applause:
SUMMARY:
We Were Here is written as the court ordered therapy journal of 15 year-old Miguel who has just been sent to a group home. He immediately decides to keep to himself and makes sure the other boys at the home understand that he has no intention of getting chummy. His attitude lands him in a fight shortly after he arrives with Mong, a thin, crazed looking kid with huge scars on his cheeks. That night, Miguel wakes to see Mong staring down at him, but when both acknowledge that they have nothing to lose a tacit truce is established between the two. Not long into Miguel’s stay at the group home, his huge, slow, former juvi cellmate, Rondell, gets transferred to the home. Miguel allows himself to hang out with Rondell, but keeps his distance from the other boys. One night, Mong returns to Miguel’s room and offers to include Miguel in his plans to escape the group home. Although hesitant at first, Miguel and Rondell break out with Mong when the time comes. What follows for the three is an adventure that involves a lot of running, backtracking, hiding, and growing. You’ll have to read it to find out how it all ends.
E’S 2 CENTS:
As a future urban teacher, many elements of this novel were attractive to me. First and foremost, Miguel starts reading compulsively at the group home in an attempt to remain isolated. His journal provides a lot of wonderful links to more traditional classics and may compel some students to read the referenced books as well. Duh, Matt De La Peña didn’t invent literary allusions, but opportunity in this book is especially powerful because Miguel—aside from his one big mistake—sounds a lot like a teenage guy. His voice, which employs colloquial usage and a few heaps of profanity, is defined and consistent. Miguel’s concerns are that of many teenage boys: he worries about how to seem smooth in front of the ladies, idolizes his big brother, and likes sparring with his friends. An area that interests me concerns conceptions of power and masculinity specifically in low-income urban populations. When people don’t have power through financial means (CEOs, trust fund kids, etc), power and social prowess are achieved through much more corporeal means. I think the limitations on modes of achieving power or status in these cases are greatly responsible for the level of violence we see in such settings. From the way Miguel his brother talk about girls to their play fighting to actual fighting, this novel opens a great opportunity to discuss and critically analyze what it means to be a man in our society and in different sub-cultures. The novel also invites critical analysis of race relations and the US justice system. Worth a read!
--E
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