Dark Dude, Oscar Hijuelos

Hijuelos, Oscar (2008).
Dark Dude
New York: Atheneum
978-1416948049
Genre: Realistic Fiction


In 1960s, Rico Fuentes, a pale-skinned Cuban American teenager, abandons drug-infested New York City for the picket fence and apple pie world of Wisconsin, only to discover that he still feels like an outsider and that violent and judgmental people can be found in even the wholesome Midwest.
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Fifteen-year-old Rico is what the Latinos and African Americans call a “dark dude”, someone who is light skinned and not to be trusted in the ghetto community (Dictionary of Slang definition included by Hijuelos). Growing up as a Cuban American in New York, Rico faces his otherness daily as he walks to school and frequently gets jumped. His mother blames him for their financial situation (he was a sickly child and the family incurred unaffordable medical bills), his father drinks daily, and his closest friend Jimmy has become a heroine addict. Rico escapes by reading comic books and dreaming of becoming a writer ala Mark Twain, but when problems escalate at his high school and Rico witnesses a shooting, the comic books and novels are not enough for Rico to forget his problems. The only solace he feels is when he reads the letters he receives from Gilberto, an older friend who writes from Wisconsin- a lottery winner who “escaped the streets of NY.” After much trepidation, Rico decides to run away to Wisconsin; he convinces Jimmy to go with him, and they hitchhike to Gilberto’s farm. Much like Mark Twain’s novel, Rico and Jimmy learn valuable lessons along the way. On the farm, the two boys help Gilberto and the handful of boarders; they befriend one another and help one another out. Rico finds a girlfriend and enjoys the farmland, but after six months or so, he longs for his mother’s cooking and wonders about his parents. He also feels uneasy at the boarders’ decision to grow marijuana. While working at the local gas station, Rico is assaulted because he is thought to be gay. The event combined with his uneasiness at home force Rico to realize that prejudice exists everywhere, and one must face it to survive. Hijuelos presents Rico's realization thoroughly and authentically; the novel will appeal to anyone interested in human nature.

The Chosen One, Carol Lynch

Williams, Carol Lynch (2009).
The Chosen One
New York: St. Martin's Griffin
9780312555115
Genre: Realistic Fiction

Raised in an isolated polygamous community where she secretly reads mobile library books and wonders about her father's three wives and her twenty siblings, thirteen-year-old Kyra is forced to make a desperate choice when she is selected to be her sixty-year-old uncle's seventh wife.
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Kirkus claims this book is “intensely gripping and grippingly intense,” and I have to agree. Williams’ thirteen-year-old protagonist, Kyra, opens the novel with the statement, “If I was going to kill the Prophet, I’d do it in Africa.” Williams then maintains the readers’ attention as Kyra’s predicament unfolds. Traveling back and forth in time (before the decree and after), Kyra describes her life amid The Chosen Ones. Her father, three mothers and 21 siblings live among others of the same belief system of which Prophet Childs is the leader. Kyra believes her secret visits to the bookmobile, the books she’s guiltily and hungrily read as well as her innocent relationship with Joshua, a teen member of her cult—all of which are illegal—have led to the proclamation that she must marry her sixty-year-old uncle. While she tries to resist the decree and begs her non-violent father to help her, Kyra also begins to notice her family’s situation: Why does her mother have to have so many children? Why can’t her mother get medical help? Why is Dr. Seuss so bad? and where have the other members, the members who questioned the Prophet, disappeared to? When Joshua appeals to the Prophet, Joshua is beaten and given time to escape; Williams alludes to violent torture and murder as the boy, with others, runs for his life. Williams increases the tension as readers wonder if Kyra will have the strength to escape, knowing her family will lose everything, or if she will dutifully carry out her obligations.
Williams’ final harrowing 30 pages will hold the attention of even the most reluctant reader: will Kyra live with the fact that she knows the Elders killed the bookmobile driver? Can she, will she, try to escape once more? Will she be successful? While there have been many cult novels, Williams’ offers a very real and positive ending for Kyra.