Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X. Stork

When I read Marcelo in the Real World, I messed up and called this book its sequel. The books look similar and probably had the same designer, but aren't related.

Pancho is an angry teenager forced to move into an orphanage because his parents are dead and his older sister was just possibly murdered. He's obsessed with finding the man who caused her death, mainly because she was a mentally challenged woman who couldn't defend herself. But Pancho is forced into an almost servant relationship with D.Q., a boy in a wheelchair with a type of cancer. The two form a rare friendship that survives love and heartache, chemotherapy, bipolar mothers, and shamans.

There were moments where I felt like I was reading a John Green novel, but then I'd be bored with some of the philosophy talk. In a recent issue of Booklist magazine, Gillian Engberg compiled a list of read-a-likes for Printz Award winners. For the 2010 winner Going Bovine, she listed this book as a read-a-like. I'm not sure why I didn't notice the similarities, but she's right! The roadtrip, the disease, the friendships--eerily similar!

My fav quote from page 330 of the Advanced Reading Copy:

"She reached up and kissed him on the lips. It was a small kiss. It lasted only two or three seconds, just long enough for him to taste the future."

wow

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