Our 11th title for BLM Book Fairies is this YA delight about loss, love and forgiveness.

A book fairy review:

I loved this book. I didn’t realise before starting that it is written entirely in verse! It flows beautifully and somehow really captures the atmosphere and setting of both the Dominican Republic and NYC. The writing is at the perfect pitch to throw you into the characters’ stories, and though the blurb already tells you about the plane crash and the second family, you are there when the other characters learn the news and it hits you all over again.

The narration flips smoothly between Camino and Yahaira at each cliff hanger, which makes Clap When You Land a very fast-paced and easy read. Camino’s love of swimming in the sea was so beautifully described that it must have been at least partly based on the author’s life experience.

The characters rather than the story are what really makes this novel good – they are richly drawn and their relationships with their neighbourhoods and family members are as much a part of the story as that of the sisters.

I would recommend this book for anyone who loves a good story about families and secrets – and one that’s based (well the beginning is) on a true event, the crash of the plane.

About the book:

In a novel-in-verse that brims with grief and love, National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.

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.

The author reads an extract:

Get your hands on a copy!

You can get a copy at all good book shops! Not on the shelves? Ask the book seller to order you a copy and it’ll be there in no time! If you cannot get to a book shop, there are copies of Clap When You Land available at Hive Books and Book Depository.

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