Clap When You Land

"I am beginning to learn that life-altering news is often like a premature: ill-timed, catching someone unaware, emotionally unprepared & often where they shouldn't be"- Camino

Camino and Yahaira Rios are two sisters who are totally unaware of each other's existence. Camino lives in the Dominican Republic and Yahaira lives in NYC. They are then thrust into each other's lives when their father's plane comes crashing down on September 11 and there are no reported survivors. To paraphrase the author, this is a story about discovering secrets, family and the depths of ones own character in the face of great loss.

I absolutely loved this book. It is a novel told in verse and Elizabeth Acevedo knows to how to craft magic from words. Her word show more painting skills make you feel every emotion and imagine vividly every place she describes. She gave each character depth and a wide range of emotional range. The multiple POV's weave together perfectly and you are drawn in from the first page. You can't help but feel for both girls and live in the moment with them as well.
As a Latinx I felt so nostalgic and it reminded me that home will always be with me no matter where I go. It really gives a great depiction of what people experience when they are brought up in between worlds. This novel gives a great view into the duality of being a Latinx born in the U.S. and vice versa. I cannot articulate just how much I loved this book. I know I will revisit it many more times. In simple words: "Oh man this book gave me all the feels!" This bookdragon rates it 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥. It's not too late to add this one to your TBR for Caribbean Heritage and Pride Month. show less

So, I finished reading Clap When You Land, and I felt like I needed a couple of days to express how I feel about it. Wow! I had read so much about it and considering how hyped up this has been, I had my hopes up. Thank goodness I wasn't disappointed.

In Clap When You Land, we follow the lives of Camino and Yahaira Rios when they discover that their father died in a plane crash. The catch here is that none of them knew of the other. Camino lives in the Dominican Republic with her Tía while Yahaira lives in New York with her Mother. Their father used to spend the whole year with Yahaira's family, while in the Summer he flew to DR to be with Camino.

Once they hear the news of their father's passing, their whole world completely falls apart show more - some plans were left hung up, apologies were left to be said, hugs to be given, until they find each other.

I had my hopes up for this book, but I was a bit apprehensive since I had never read any verse novel - nor even knew about it. However, the reading was quite easy and fluid and I loved all the references to DR and Hispanic culture. I loved getting inside the girls' heads and follow them through their grief, discoveries, and acceptance. By writing in verse, I believe Acevedo has managed to take the readers in an extraordinary and raw journey that I don't have the words to describe. I just loved this book with my whole heart. I can't wait to read Elizabeth Acevedo's other novels.

The last book of the year has definitely gone straight to my favorites list. show less

I really loved this book! It's a very moving story that uses the 11/12/2001 American Airlines Flight 587 from JFK to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic crash as an inspiration. It's the second deadliest plane crash in US history and it happened so soon after September 11, but I had really forgotten about it or maybe it didn't get enough coverage where I live? After the crash, family secrets are revealed and two sisters learn about each other's existence. It also touches on other social problems - poverty, modern colonialism, sexual abuse, emigration.

If you aren't sure about the poetry part, you shouldn't be. It's very easy to read and reads almost as prose. I also really recommend the audiobook version because it's read by the author show more together with another Dominican poet Melania-Luisa Marte. Elizabeth reads the voice of Yahaira, the New York sister, and Melania-Luisa narrates the voice of Camino, the DR sister. show less

ackles family secrets, toxic masculinity, and socio-economic differences with incisive clarity and candor.

Camino Rios lives in the Dominican Republic and yearns to go to Columbia University in New York City, where her father works most of the year. Yahaira Rios, who lives in Morningside Heights, hasn’t spoken to her dad since the previous summer, when she found out he has another wife in the Dominican Republic. Their lives collide when this man, their dad, dies in an airplane crash with hundreds of other passengers heading to the island. Each protagonist grieves the tragic death of their larger-than-life father and tries to unravel the tangled web of lies he kept secret for almost 20 years. The author pays reverent tribute to the show more lives lost in a similar crash in 2001. The half sisters are vastly different—Yahaira is dark skinned, a chess champion who has a girlfriend; Camino is lighter skinned, a talented swimmer who helps her curandera aunt deliver neighborhood babies. Despite their differences, they slowly forge a tenuous bond. The book is told in alternating chapters with headings counting how many days have passed since the fateful event. Acevedo balances the two perspectives with ease, contrasting the girls’ environments and upbringings. Camino’s verses read like poetic prose, flowing and straightforward. Yahaira’s sections have more breaks and urgent, staccato beats. Every line is laced with betrayal and longing as the teens struggle with loving someone despite his imperfections.

A standing ovation. (Verse novel. 14-18)

-Kirkus Review show less

Heartfelt YA fiction from Elizabeth Acevedo, written in verse. The story is about how the two daughters of a man who died in a plane crash come to know about each other, because, you see, he’s kept two separate families, one in New York and the other in the Dominican Republic. On top of processing their devastating grief, conflicting emotions arise, all of which felt authentically told by Acevedo. The daughter in the DR dreams of going to America and becoming a doctor, but has limited resources, as well as the threat of a neighborhood creepoid trying to hook her into life as a prostitute. The daughter in America plays chess and has a supportive girlfriend who loves gardening, but had known of her father’s duplicity a year before he show more was killed, resulting in their estrangement. They are destined to meet, but it’s not clear how close they will become.

I found the verse form effective, allowing for a punctuation of feelings from the two girls as they go through this life-changing event while coming of age. It’s an easy read but the mix of feelings churned up are anything but simple. And while the characters are far removed from me personally, there is a universality about losing a parent, and these words hit hard:

“For the rest of my life I will sit & imagine
what my father would say in any given moment.

& I will make him up:
his words, his advice, our memories.”

Here’s another excerpt on death; I’ve resolved to carry a special coin with me:
“In history we learned
the Greeks made sure to die

with a coin in their pocket
to ensure their spirit could pay

for their way to the other side;
remembering this, I give Papi

the only kind of safe passage I have to offer…” show less

Just absolutely wonderful. Told from the rotating POV of two teenage girls, this novel explores what makes a person part of your family. When a plane crashes, two girls are left grieving for the father they lost. Aspiring doctor Camino, whose circumstances in the Dominican Republic limit her options, and Yahaira, a brilliant chess player in New York City. Both are equally fascinating, a tricky thing to accomplish when you bounce the narrative between characters. The family secret that ties the two together will change their worlds. The story is based on the real plane crash that killed 260 people in Nov. 2001. After reading both this and With the Fire on High, I will read anything Acevedo writes.

Trigger Warnings: Death of a parent, sexual assault, stalking, plane crash

Clap When You Land is a novel-in-verse, duo POV, about grief and love. Camino Rios' favorite time of the year is the summer when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But when his place is supposed to land, Camino is met at the airport to crowds of crying people. In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called into the principal's office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father died in a plane crash. Separated by distance - and their Papi's secrets - the two girls must face this new altered reality. But then, when it all seems like their father has completely disappeared, they learn of each other.

I lost my father suddenly myself at show more twelve-years-old, this book made me cry at what the girls were going through.

"For the rest of my life I will sit & imagine
what my father would say in any given moment.
& I will make him up:
his words, his advice, our memories."

I still do this, sixteen years later...

Both girls have their own struggles, but Camino especially does. Now that her father isn't alive to pay him off, the local pimp, a man called El Cero, begins following her around. All she wants to do is escape the island, go to New York to study premed, and have a chance at a better life than what she sees around her. Then, Yahaira finds her on social media and it changes everything she thought she knew about her father.

This was beautifully done - the girls discovering their father wasn't perfect, that their hero was complexed and flawed. Even though he was a good father, he wasn't the greatest husband. Both girls are matured by the intensity of their loss and the discoveries made afterwards and they take a lot of others grief into their own hands, especially Yahaira and her Mom.

I can't say enough praise for Elizabeth Acevedo and the way she cuts and merges words together. I use to be wary of books in verse form but the way Acevedo writes really makes you stop and think. It grips at your heart.

I will always highly recommend Acevedo to anyone to read.

"Never, ever, let them see you sweat, negra.
Fight until you can't breathe, & if you have to forfeit,
you forfeit smiling, make them think you let them win." show less