Richie's Picks: THE LAST SUMMER OF THE DEATH WARRIORS by Francisco X.
Stork, Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic, March 2010, 352p., ISBN: 978-0-545-15133-7
"There is a road, no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night"
-- Hunter/Garcia
"He rolled on his side until he reached the edge of the bed and he lay
there looking at the floor. Then he rolled to the other side and lay there
staring at the green parrot he had carved. D.Q. had placed it on the night
table that separated the beds. He felt weak, as if a boxing opponent had
spent round after round banging away at his kidneys. Those body shots
gradually drain the legs and arms of strength, and the mind eventually loses its
will to fight. Ever since he met D.Q., people had been taking body shots
at him. D.Q., Father Concha, Marisol, the little bald girl, they all
pummeled him with words and requests that weakened his focus on finding the man
who killed his sister."
You think you've got it bad? Ha! That's because you haven't yet met
seventeen year-old Pancho Sanchez. Pancho's mom died back when he was five. A
few months ago his father died in a freak, work-related accident. And --
just a couple of weeks ago -- his developmentally-disabled older sister
Rosa was found in a motel room, dead from undetermined causes.
We will come to understand why Pancho decked and seriously injured the kid
at the foster home where he was first placed after his sister's death left
him alone in the world. Fortunately, Pancho's court-appointed legal
guardian, state caseworker Mrs. Olivares, knows many details about what Pancho
has gone through -- gritty details we won't learn for a while. Mrs.
Olivares has called in favors so that Pancho will be living at St. Anthony's, a
home for orphans, rather than being hustled off to jail or juvie. But even
Mrs. Olivares doesn't know what Pancho knows about his big sister; why
Pancho is so sure that somebody out there is responsible for her death, and why
Pancho has got his father's gun hidden in his belongings.
"'The balance of hope and acceptance is at the heart of what it means to
be a Death Warrior. It's an equilibrium that needs to be maintained.'"
You think Pancho Sanchez had got it bad? Ha! That's because you haven't
yet met seventeen year-old D.Q., the long-time resident of St. Anthony's who
Pancho is given the task of assisting. D.Q. is not technically an orphan.
His bipolar mother freed herself of him back when he was ten by dumping
him at St. Tony's. D.Q. is a brilliant young man who now has an inoperable
brain cancer that -- odds are -- will kill him in the next six or so
months. Inspired by the writings of Henry David Thoreau, D.Q. is writing a book
-- the Death Warrior Manifesto. Unfortunately, D.Q.'s determinative plans
to live and love fully and die deliberately are being shredded by his
mother who is back in the picture, with a high-priced lawyer husband. She has
so far permitted him to remain at St. Anthony's over the years as D.Q. has
desired, but she now figures it to be her right and duty to subject him to
any and all treatments -- from experimental drugs to shamans -- that she
decides are worth trying out.
As the two young men work together and come to trust each other and count
on one another, D.Q. and Pancho Sanchez (get the allusion?) will each face
profound decisions and forks in the road. That road will lead the pair to
the story's fair maiden, Marisol, who works at Casa Esperanza, a facility
where young patients reside while receiving cancer treatments at the nearby
hospital.
And if you go no one may follow
That path is for your steps alone
-- Hunter/Garcia
"D.Q. read: '"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately,
to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what
it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not
lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I
wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live
deep and suck out all the marrow of life. . . '"
There is just so much to suck out of this powerful and moving story.
Author Francisco X. Stork does an awesome balancing act in counterpoising the
two young men's feelings and points of view about their situations; and
their respective ideas about faith. I love all that Pancho teaches me through
his knowledge of the philosophy and practice of boxing. And I was so
thoroughly taken with D.Q.'s five Principles of The Death Warrior that I
immediately posted them to my MySpace blog and have been going back to reread
them. As D.Q. explains to Pancho, "'Being a Death Warrior is all in the
trying.'"
As has been the case in 2009 with Stork's previous book, MARCELO IN THE
REAL WORLD, you will unquestionably be hearing lots of well-deserved praise
in 2010 for THE LAST SUMMER OF THE DEATH WARRIORS.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks _http://richiespicks.com_ (http://richiespicks.com/)
_http://www.librarything.com/profile/richiespicks_
(http://www.librarything.com/profile/richiespicks)
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
Moderator _http://groups.yahoo.com/middle_school_lit/_
(http://groups.yahoo.com/middle_school_lit/)
_http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks_ (http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks)
FTC NOTICE: Richie receives free books from lots of publishers who hope he
will Pick their books. You can figure that any review was written after
reading and dog-earring a free copy received. Richie retains these review
copies for his rereading pleasure and for use in his booktalks at schools
and libraries.
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