American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

American Dirt' by Jeanine Cummins is a tragic realistic fiction book about a Mexican family fleeing from their dangerous, drug-high town. The story is told from the point of view of Lydia, the mother. This book is amazing and varies in content about real world problems, making me extremely interested in it. Although this is an amazing, surreal book - I recommend it for people that are 13+ because of the graphic categories such as: mention of drug use, violence, gore, hate speech (swear words), rape, and suicidal references. I, myself am interested in real problems in books, but to put it plainly - this isn't for the faint hearted. Beautifully written, I recommend this. (Mandalay. Grade 7)

Rating: 5/5

Vocabulary Difficulty: 1/5

American Dirt, by Jeanine Cummins, is a heart-wrenching realistic fiction about a Mexican mother and her son on the run, trying to escape the drug cartels that have taken over her hometown of Acapulco. The cartels are targeting her because of an unflattering story written about their leader by her husband, a reporter. They killed the rest of her family, not they are coming for her. The story follows from mostly Lydia's perspective as she and her son make new friends, and enemies, on the most violent and unsafe mode of travel there is, La Bestia. Between 400,000 and 500,000 immigrants like Lydia board the train every year, and significantly fewer get off. The final goal, Estados Unidos. The United States.

The book is very confronting about the perils that migrants go through to escape Mexico. There is gang violence, significant blood and gore, rape, and a lot of swearing. Because of this, I would recommend this book for ages 12 and up. There are references to trauma and PTSD, many scenes where the characters struggle to cope with grief, and some suicidal themes. The book is very long 383 pages. There is some controversy because the book is written by a white woman, but overall is an eye-opening and emotional read, and I highly reccomend. (Anna. Grade 7)

Rating: 5/5

Vocabulary Difficulty: 2/5