Knife and the Butterfly

author: Ashley Hope Pérez 

Lerner, 2012

grades 7-up 

Salvadoran American

In 2011, I spoke on a panel with four other authors, on the topic of children’s literature and war. My part on children as combatants included G. Neri and Randy DuBurke’s graphic novel Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty, about an 11-year-old Chicago boy executed by gang members after he had shot a 14-year-old neighbor to prove himself to the gang.

This theme of gang warfare and the trauma experienced by young combatants in inner cities in the United States appears in Ashley Hope Pérez’s second young adult novel, The Knife and the Butterfly. Fifteen-year-old Azael Arevalo wakes up in an institution following a drug-fueled gang battle near his Houston, Texas, neighborhood. He doesn’t remember how he got there, but he fears he has killed someone and is back in prison. This, however, is an unusual prison, because his only activity appears to be watching a 17-year-old Anglo girl, Lexi Allen, as she writes in her diary and meets with her therapist, her grandmother, and her attorney.

In chapters from the past that alternate with Azael’s present, the reader learns that his mother has died and his alcoholic father has been deported to El Salvador, leaving him and his older brother to fend for themselves. Though he aspires to be an artist, Azael is the tougher and more violent of the two brothers; in fact, he brought his older brother into the notorious MS-13 gang.

A brief digression into the history of MS-13. The gang, originally known as Mara Salvatrucha, formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s with Salvadoran refugees who sought to protect themselves from Mexican-American gangs. The young refugees had fled a bloody civil war in their country between leftist guerrillas and right-wing government and paramilitary forces that enjoyed the support of the US government despite highly publicized human rights abuses such as the assassination of the Archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero, and the killing or disappearance of thousands of clergy, teachers, intellectuals, and others.

In all, more than 70,000 Salvadorans died in the fighting that lasted for two decades until a peace treaty in 1992. Many of the refugees who became gang members were deported following the end of the war, and they established MS-13 in El Salvador; since then, the gang has recruited members throughout Central America and Mexico as well as in the United States. The trauma of one war has given way to the trauma of another.

Pérez’s novel moves into the supernatural as Azael reflects on his violent life. Unable to communicate directly with the mysterious Lexi, he reads her diary and draws her face and surroundings. He establishes a connection to her that moves her to take responsibility for her own role in the gang battle. Pérez has written a fascinating story that explores why young people join gangs and portrays the emotional trauma of taking part in these wars at home. Although Azael has suffered much and taken a dangerous path, readers will ache for his desire to leave some beauty in the world through his art, a goal he clings to even when everything he creates seems to be marred or erased. Recommended.

—Lyn Miller-Lachmann
(published 4/7/13)

Sonia Sotomayor: First Hispanic U.S. Supreme Court Justice

author: Lisa Tucker McElroy

Lerner, 2010

grades 3-up 

Puerto Rican

With well-organized and easy-to-read text, complemented by clear, bright photographs, this slim volume provides an honest account of Sonia Sotomayor’s life, including her pride in her ethnicity, her closeness with her family, and her mentoring of young people. Appended to this material are “fun facts,” a timeline of Sotomayor’s life, a glossary of legal terms to help the young reader, source notes, a selected bibliography, suggestions for further reading, and a helpful index.

The color photos—family pics, news shots and portraits—portray Sotomayor as she really is: a smart, vibrant, and lovely woman. There is nothing vague or indecisive in her face; all the reader sees is her energy and great humor, even in the photo where she is showing off the cast on her fractured leg. I especially love the look on Sotomayor’s mother’s face—“Is this for real?”—while she holds the Bible for her daughter’s swearing-in ceremony. And the early photos of Sotomayor’s parents and their moving to the Bronx show two people who are raising their children with the best they can provide. Another plus, which should be in every volume of this kind, is that each photo has both a caption and accompanying text. 

For the most part, the text is truthful and clear—no “poor little disadvantaged girl made good” portrayal of this strong, brilliant woman. Besides the chronicle of Sotomayor’s early life and her way through high school and then Princeton and Yale on full scholarships, the author instructs the reader on the workings of the New York District Attorney’s Office, the US District Court, the US Court of Appeals, and the US Supreme Court. In addition, McElroy also discusses a few of the more important cases on which Sotomayor worked.

McElroy also writes about the vetting procedures, including Senate meetings and confirmation hearings Sotomayor had to endure. Here is the weak spot in this otherwise excellent biography: In two places, rather than critically examining the Republican campaign against Sotomayor, and their attempts to beat her down during her confirmation hearing, McElroy writes: “[O]ther senators and governors did not support her. They believed that her Hispanic background might cause her to make decisions to benefit Hispanic people,” and “Some senators still did not think that Sotomayor could be a fair justice. This was because she had once said in a speech that a Hispanic woman would make a better judge than a white man.”

Sotomayor’s original statement was: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” What she was saying was, in effect, that people’s life experiences inform their life choices. And what Sotomayor answered to the sharp questioning at the confirmation hearings, which McElroy quoted correctly, was: “I do not believe any ethnic, racial or gender group has an advantage in sound judgment.” Sotomayor was confirmed, and her statements reflected her strength in refusing to minimize her life’s lessons.

However, all together, Sonia Sotomayor: First Hispanic U.S. Supreme Court Justice is a well-done, personal and authentic look at her life and work. Highly recommended.

—Judy Zalazar Drummond

(published 4/6/13)