Monday, January 15, 2018

Stork, Francisco X. Disappeared


Stork, Francisco X.     Disappeared  Scholastic/Arthur Levine     2017   326p   17.99  978-0-545-94447-2            hs        Realistic Fiction          E-BN            

Siblings Sara and Emiliano Zapata must escape their home in Ciudad Juarez after they are targeted by the ruling drug cartel for Sara’s expose about the cartel’s involvement in trafficking.       Sara Zapata is an up and coming reporter in Ciudad Juarez invesigating the Desaparacidas, young women kidnapped and trafficked by the ruling drug cartel.  The story is personal, her best friend Linda disappeared over four months ago.  When she receives an encrypted message threatening both her life and that of her family, she decides to intensify her digging to save Linda and uncover the truth. 

Emiliano is a high school soccer star and boyfriend of Perla Rubi, the wealthy daughter of one of the cartel’s lawyers who offers entrepreneurial Emiliano financial security, but with a hefty cost to his conscience. 

This fast-paced thriller takes place in one eventful week when Sara discovers the whereabouts of her friend Linda, and the identities of her captors, Emiliano’s new business associates, forcing them to flee Mexico pursued by the cartel.

This timely, beautifully written, harrowing story vividly depicts how  Mexico’s poverty, corruption, and violence forces young people like Sara and Emiliano to risk illegal and unsafe border crossing in hopes for not only a better life, but for life itself.  This is YA literature at its’ best.                          Teixeira, Lisa

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