Banned Books Week and Hispanic Heritage Month fall at the same time. All week I am going to be spotlighting a Classic Banned Book and a book by a Hispanic Author that I think you will love if you loved the banned book. A Margie’s Must Reads version of “If you like this, then you will love that” YAY!! Me siento muy EXCITED!! #ReadDiverseBooks #ReadBannedBooks
Today’s Books Are:
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton & Throw by Ruben Degollado
50 years of an iconic classic! This international bestseller and inspiration for a beloved movie is a heroic story of friendship and belonging.
No one ever said life was easy. But Ponyboy is pretty sure that he’s got things figured out. He knows that he can count on his brothers, Darry and Sodapop. And he knows that he can count on his friends—true friends who would do anything for him, like Johnny and Two-Bit. But not on much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids whose idea of a good time is beating up on “greasers” like Ponyboy. At least he knows what to expect—until the night someone takes things too far.
The Outsiders is a dramatic and enduring work of fiction that laid the groundwork for the YA genre. S. E. Hinton’s classic story of a boy who finds himself on the outskirts of regular society remains as powerful today as it was the day it was first published.
“Llorona was no harmless little pigeon. She was the lechuza, the owl you see just before someone is about to die, the one that haunts you in your dreams and you never want to see in real life because it means you are about to lose someone you love.”
Llorona is the only girl Guero has ever loved. A wounded soul, she has adopted the name of a ghost from Mexican folklore. True to her namesake, Llorona cast Guero away with the coldness of the apparition she has become. But Guero–though he would never admit it to his friends–still wants to get back together with her.
Guero spends time with his friends Angel and Smiley–members of the HCP (Hispanics Causing Panic) gang–roaming the streets of the South Texas border towns they inhabit, trying to forget Llorona even as she seems to appear around every corner.
Over three days Guero’s increasingly violent confrontations with Llorona’s current boyfriend will jeopardize the lives of Angel and Smiley and the love he hopes to regain.
As events begin to accelerate toward their conclusion–and gang signs are thrown as both threats and claims of identity–the question arises: will Guero throw the HCP sign, or will he throw off that life? Guero’s life will be irrevocably changed by violence and loss, but who will he lose, and will he–somewhere along the way–lose himself?
