Growing Up Never Stops

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Published: February 21, 2012

Publisher: Simon & Schuster BFYR

Received: Finally got a copy from my wonderful friend Melissa at Christmas!

"The summer sun was not meant for boys like me. Boys like me belonged to the rain."

Angel Aristotle Mendoza hates a lot of things. He hates his name. He hates that his father doesn't talk to him

and that his mother is strict. He hates that his siblings are much, much older than him. He hates being fifteen.

He hates not being able to swim. But Ari finds out that he doesn't hate Dante.

"I got to thinking that poems were like people. Some people you got right off the bat.

Some people you just didn't get--and never would get."

Ari has always felt misunderstood. He doesn't like to talk about his feelings either. But somehow, Dante gets him.

Dante talks enough for both of them, and finally Ari finds a friend. Ari has a couple other friends at school. And

this year, he's going to kiss a girl.

"I bet you could sometimes find all the mysteries of the universe in someone's hand."

Ari's going to learn how to drive. He's going to figure out what happened to his brother. Ari's got a lot of plans.

"Another secret of the universe: Sometimes pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere.

The clearest summer morning could end in a downpour. Could end in lightning and thunder."

I loved Aristotle and Dante. Of course, I did. It's one of those books that got rave reviews when it came out. And

when people hear I haven't read it, they always say "oh you'll love it!!" And I did. How could anyone not love it? It's

about finding out who your true friends are, and what love means, and how far is too far. It's about how people

gravitate towards one another without any intention of doing so. It's just an incredibly beautiful book.

I'm just as much a fan of this book at 24 as I would have been if I'd read it at 12 or 13 or 15 or 19. I think it's one

of those books that just works. No matter what age you are. It just clicks. Or, I don't know, maybe it doesn't.

Recommended for: fans of first love, fans of first friendships, fans of beautiful writings, romantics

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More Diversity in Your Book Diet

Hello Lovelies! As usual Top Ten Tuesday is brought to you by the lovely people over at The Broke and the Bookish . Today's topic is Top Ten Books for People Who Like X, and I'm going to go with... Top Ten Books for People Who Like Diversity Thanks to the efforts of groups like We Need Diverse Books, diversity is having a resurgence in young adult and children's books. For the last couple years, I have been trying to read more books with diverse characters or by diverse authors. (Diverse in this respect includes race, sexuality, gender, and disability). I haven't endeavored to challenge myself to only read a certain type of book i.e. only those by women of color or anything that isn't by a white heterosexual male, but I try to be extra aware of the characters and ask myself if they actually are white (sometimes the text doesn't say it, sometimes people just assume it!) and if being white is necessary for the character or not. But here are my top t...

TBT: The Witch of Blackbird Pond

In middle school, I was a member of this reading club where we had a set of books to read as a team, and then we did like little quizzes on them against other teams. (SUPER NERD!). And now, I'm not entirely certain, but I feel pretty sure that club was where I read this book for the first time. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare is a Newbery award winning historical fiction novel. Orphan Kit Tyler has been moved from her home in the Caribbean to her puritan relative's home in Connecticut. She feels like she has nothing in common with these relatives, but she does form an attachment with an old Quaker woman and a young sailor, Nat. Of course breaking out of the mold is not without its price, and Kit learns this for herself when she is accused of witchcraft. This is one of those books that I think about constantly. I haven't reread it in several years, but I always want to. I recommend it frequently to other. This is a book for readers...

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is a very entertaining classic. I think everyone knows the story of young Alice who follows a White Rabbit into the world of Wonderland where everything is just slightly (or significantly) strange. For some reason, every time I've picked up Alice's Adventures before, I've put it down without making it more than 10 pages or so. But this time, I managed to finish it. It's a quirky sort of book, but I enjoyed it. It did make me think of The Phantom Tollbooth (here's my review of that classic), but I preferred Carroll's novel to Juster's. There's some great play on words and delightful misunderstandings because of homophones and characters not paying attention to each other. I think this is a worthwhile classic, but I don't actually have that much to say about it. Middle Grade March Count: 5

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