The Book Nook

This book is a highly realistic book that follows a young protagonist, Xiomara, through a tough portion of her life. Set in the Harlem area of New York City in our present day, you get to know her internal and external struggles with the world around her that you can relate to at multiple times in the book. Trying to break her silence along with her family’s silence with each other, you’ll get to explore a world just like our own in a different viewpoint and you won't regret it!

An interesting character is Ms. Galiano, who is an English teacher for Xiomara. Everyone at the high school finds her tough, but along the way you’ll come to love her pestering and insistence. She is determined to see Xiomara succeed, making her seem like a guardian angel sent as a guide and you’ll be anticipating what she’ll do next to try and convince Xiomara to break through the ice. Why is she so determined? Well I guess you’ll have to read it to find out.

I learned from this book that things don’t always have to be in black and white. When there are major problems in a family it doesn't have to end with child services or never talking to each other again. When you hear about a parent hitting their kid you think they’d go to jail but what this story shows us is not all cases have to end like that. We are always thinking of the children but never of what triggered the parent to do that, and sometimes we’re all hurting in a situation and we should deal with that by healing together and improving, not separating forever to hurt even more.

Final thoughts: I WAS NOT ready for the ending. You don't know how many times I came close to crying. Anyway, 10/10 would read again.

This book is about two sisters that fight all the time. The challenge comes when both of them have to face some problems that only they can solve if they work together. Soon they both realise that if they stick together nothing can tear them apart. Obviously they are siblings so they still fight but in their hearts they know that they have each other to go through hard times.

I read this book because this author writes a lot of good and interesting books so I thought I should also try this one out and in my opinion this is the best one I have read so far.

Raina the name of the main character. She is the oldest of three siblings (including her) and she has some fear of something that happen in the past. It's also the name of the author because some her books relate to things that happen in her life and this is one of them.

I connected with the book because me and my siblings fight as well, in the car and in the house, but in the end we forget everything and become best friends again.

I'd recommend this book to teenagers and people with siblings younger or older. I think this book is important because it relates to reality that all siblings fight oldest or youngest. But in the end they are your best friends people you can talk to and discuss problems with.

This review was submitted by Simrah U., who is a member of OCV News and the OCV Book Club.