This storyline surrounding El Cero wanting to pressure Camino into prostitution was horrible to read about, since it's the reality for so many girls. I liked the representation that although these girls had lived 16 years and never knew the other existed that they were able to see their grief reflected in each other and although unsure of each other, were able to gain comfort from that. 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. Both girls have their own struggles, but Camino is especially threatened without her father to protect her.

And then I’d get distracted trying to imagine it written as a prose, without the line breaks that suggest the rhythm of reading — and still loved it. It's what she had wanted all along: pursuing her dreams, going to medical school, and having a family.Take Elizabeth Acevedo, for example, whose Clap When You Land and The Poet X use an exhilarating, engaging, free-form novel-in-verse approach. How can Cami and Yaya love their father and mourn him and at the same time wonder if they can ever really forgive him? In a moment of hell, it spat out their saviour, a little piece of the Father still living in each of them. That said, I'm filled with joy thinking of all the young Dominican girls and young Afro-Latinas who get to see their stories reflected WITH HAPPY ENDINGS.

It was touching to see the parental love he had for both his children but the complexity and the impacts on other areas of his life. The novel is written from two perspectives, those of Yahaira Ríos in New York City, New York and Camino Ríos in Sosúa, Dominican Republic. I wish more time had been devoted to the relationship between the two protagonists rather than spending 2/3 of the book reading a repetition of their same reactions.As well as being exceptionally affecting on grief, forgiveness and family secrets, Clap When You Land is also devastatingly sharp on the exploitative tendencies of tourism. the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered. She holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. I'm not victim blaming her, it just makes no sense to me why Camino would put herself willingly in this very unsafe environment because literally EVERY TIME (! Yahaira is a precocious chess player living in New York City, where her Dad runs a billiards hall and she has an amazing girlfriend.

Poetry is not my friend, but Acevedo manages to make this novel more lyrical, while maintaining her tone of heartbreak, sadness, grief, agony, and anger through every verse. I’ve been raised with “traditional” poetry (until this, perhaps the only novel in verse that I ever read was Eugene Onegin), and to me it’s always been the same - the structure, the rhyme, the rhythm. All in all, the love and praise Elizabeth Acevedo receives is deserved, and I can see why her books and words manage to grip the reader into continuing with her flow. Clap When You Land is the story of two girls - Camino and Yahaira - one in the Dominican Republic and one in New York City. From the descriptions of the food and spices to the small barrios and communities coming together, Elizabeth gives you an image of what the Dominican Republic is like.I love the Spanish language that is interwoven giving the story more heart, lending it more authenticity and even though you might not understand it, you still understand it. In this novel we follow two sisters perspectives and how they are grappling the devastation of their fathers death. I especially loved this one because I love stories that follow sisters and this format and story-telling style was really interesting, I liked going back and forth between their POV's. I also loved seeing unravel how the two girls finally learned of each other, and what they thought of each other before interacting, and how they grew to respect and love each other once they met. Printz Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and the Walter Award, amongst many others.

The structure and shape of the text adds an essential component to the superb overall quality of the story. Although told in the form of poetry and dual pov, the tone of the novel catches you from the beginning, making you already quiver and ache in sadness as you read the sad news: A flight fell from the sky, which resulted in all passengers dying. In cities like theirs, in both NY and DR, it is common for many Latinos to form their own groups, their community, and become attached to these people that come from similar places, from similar suffering. Part of the girls' discovery of each other is also the discovery that maybe their father wasn't quite the man they thought he was.Within five pages, I was completely engrossed in the structure and I really didn’t even notice beyond being wowed by the author’s extreme talent. And now gone and it's just the two daughters, hunting in the rubble of his life for answers, trying to find their way to each other across the many distances that divide their two worlds.