Life, After

June 28, 2010
The intensely personal story of 16-year-old Dani and her family unfolds in the early years of the new millennium in Buenos Aires during Argentina's economic crisis ("It seemed like we lived in a country where every day the floor was sinking a little farther under our feet," she reflects). Her father lost his sister and her unborn child in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA building, a Jewish community center, and his clothing store has closed amid the economic tumult, leaving him "angry, unpredictable, and bitter." As such, money and food are scarce (Dani's father refuses to accept charity); additionally Dani's best friend has moved to Israel, her boyfriend's family is heading to Miami, and city violence is increasing. Dani's mother decides to move the family to Twin Lakes, N.Y., which they hope will be a financial and cultural refuge, but despite Dani's new friends, it is difficult to assimilate in post-9/11 America and to forget the tragedies in her past. The languid pace and wealth of details in Littman's (Purge) empathetic story magnifies its emotionally convincing and absorbing qualities. Ages 12–up.

June 15, 2010

The exodus of the Jews is breaking Dani's heart: the exodus from Buenos Aires, that is. The 2001 Argentinian currency crisis has destroyed Buenos Aires's economy, and all of Dani's friends are moving to Israel or the United States. Dani's own family, devastated by poverty and her father's overwhelming depression, is headed to New York. There, in a wealthy suburb, Dani struggles to make friends in a huge, English-speaking public high school. Dani's high-school problems follow a checklist of issues: autistic friend, mean popular girl, long-distance boyfriend hiding his new romance. The supporting characters act mostly as set dressing—from the bully who vanishes as soon as he has provoked another character's redemption to the friend from ESL class who has no nationality or history of her own—and the comforting solutions are too pat. Enjoyable enough, so keep this on the shelf to fight misconceptions about terrorism, poverty, immigration and Jews—but don't expect readers to come begging for more. (Historical fiction. 11-13)

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November 1, 2010

Gr 7 Up-In 2002 in Argentina, Dani Bensimon weathers the political and economic crisis that is dragging her middle-class Jewish family into poverty and her formerly loving father into depression. They are all still grieving over the death of her pregnant aunt and her unborn child in the 1994 terrorist bombing of the AMIA building, the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Many of the teen's friends have left the country, including her novio, Roberto. Eventually, the Bensimons relocate to the New York suburbs and Dani must work hard to remain the dutiful, perfect, helpful daughter. While the plot is predictable, supporting characters are direct from after-school-special casting, and the narrator is at times a bit too wholesome, this affecting book works in its entirety. It shows a place and part of recent history left mostly unexamined in YA literature, highlighting an act of terrorism in Argentina and a Latin American immigrant. Dani's experiences give her insight and empathy into a community suffering the aftermath of 9/11. Littman's sprinkling of Spanish words and phrases throughout gives a genuine feel to her dialogue, and her references to Jewish customs also fit smoothly into the context. This immigrant story is easy to swallow, if a bit weighty in tone, very much like Christine Gonzalez's The Red Umbrella (Knopf, 2010).-Rhona Campbell, Washington, DC Public Library

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2010
Grades 6-9 In this lachrymose emigration story, hard economic times in Buenos Aires, the steady flight of friends and neighbors to Israel and the U.S., and finally her mothers injuries in a flash mob prompt teenage Daniela Bensimon and her parents to relocate to suburban New York. The transition is a hard oneparticularly for her father, who lost his small business and a close relative in a terrorist bombingbut thanks to high-school friendships with a classmate with Aspergers syndrome and his protective twin sister, as well as a deepening relationship with another student named Brian, Daniela makes it over the rough spots, and by the end she is feeling a little less like an extranjera and a little more like an americana. Littman definitely overuses tears as an intensity-builder but weaves sensitively articulated themes (the story is set in 2003, when the impact of 9/11 was still sharp) and credible teen banter into an emotionally complex tale. Danielas many amusing encounters with idiomatic expressions in her new language may provide an additional draw for ELL readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)