Book Review: "Clap When You Land" by Elizabeth Acevedo
“Clap When You Land” by Elizabeth Acevedo
Synopsis: Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people…
In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash.
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.
And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other.
Rating: 4.25
Review: “With the Fire on High” by Elizabeth Acevedo was one of my favorite reads of last year, and even though I’ve had “Clap When You Land” on my to-read pile since it arrived last summer, I have to tell you guys I was a little intimidated. I very rarely read anything that’s entirely in-verse, and if I’m being totally honest, it’s not my favorite. I blame forced poetry units in middle school, but that’s not the point of why I’m writing today.
Instead, I’m here to say that if I, a pretty not enthusiastic reader of verse, adored this book — you will, too. 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.
Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about this amazing book — a tale of two sisters who didn’t know each other and who are brought together after a devastating incident. We get to hear from Yahaira and Camino throughout the story, and I really enjoyed getting both of their perspectives. Yahaira is a precocious chess player living in New York City, where her Dad runs a billiards hall and she has an amazing girlfriend. Camino lives in the DR, and she only sees her dad in the summer; she wants to go to Columbia University and become a doctor — after learning about traditional healing from her aunt/guardian.
They are incredibly different young women, both living through an utterly bizarre situation, and as readers, we go through the immediate year following the plane accident with them. As they move through grief, we get to hear stories about their day-to-day lives, their loves, their losses, their hopes, their fears — and also watch them find each other, and how that relationship evolves.
I’m honestly at a loss for how to describe this book without telling you to read it, if you haven’t; the story itself is fairly small and constrained, and it’s centered on relationships, trusting yourself, and navigating family secrets. Elizabeth Acevedo is an amazingly gifted author, and she takes what is a fairly mundane situation (okay, minus the plane crash) and turns in into an engrossing read I’m not sure I’ll ever forget.
TL;DR: Don’t let the structure of this story throw you off — it’s an incredibly engrossing and lyrical of family, love, loss, and growing up.
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