Title: Clap When You Land

Author: Elizabeth Acevedo

Publisher: Quill Tree Books 2020

Genre: YA Fiction

Pages: 432

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Ebook; Modern Mrs Darcy 2020

Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people…

In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash.

Separated by distance—and Papi’s secrets—the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered.

And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other. 

CW: Death of a parent, Sexual assault

I picked this up because of its inclusion on the Modern Mrs. Darcy Summer Reading Guide and as one of Acevedo’s earlier works, The Poet X, won multiple awards. I had some trepidation over of the “free verse” form of the novel, but I should not have been worried. This was a moving, beautiful account of two girls growing up in very different cities but connected by many threads. I loved getting to know each girl and piecing together their lives, struggles, and dreams. Camino felt more real to me, but both girls were expertly sketched out. By the end of the novel, I wanted to keep following them as they grew together and found their new places in the world. So good!

Next up on the TBR pile: