Love in English
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A fresh, joyful YA novel that is layered with themes of immigration, cultural identity, and finding your voice in any language.
Sixteen-year-old Ana is a poet and a lover of language. Except that since she moved to New Jersey from Argentina, she can barely find the words to express how she feels.
At first Ana just wants to return home. Then she meets Harrison, the very cute, very American boy in her math class, and discovers the universal language of racing hearts. But when she begins to spend time with Neo, the Greek Cypriot boy from ESL, Ana wonders how figuring out what her heart wants can be even more confusing than the grammar they’re both trying to master. After all, the rules of English may be confounding, but there are no rules when it comes to love.
With playful and poetic breakouts exploring the idiosyncrasies of the English language, Love in English is witty and effervescent, while telling a beautifully observed story about what it means to become “American.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The teen love triangle at the center of this warm and humorous novel by Andreu (The Secret Side of Empty) is threaded with experiences that accompany acclimation to a new school and country. When 16-year-old narrator Ana moves with her family from Argentina to a New Jersey suburb, English feels like a "troll that won't let me do anything until I pay him a price I can't cover," despite the fact that she studied the language growing up. The transition results in awkward moments for the teen—as when she announces in the cafeteria "I like the... buns? And sausage?"—but she soon befriends Altagracia, a gay Dominican American girl with influencer aspirations; Neo, a sweet kid from Greece; and Harrison, a friendly, WASPy local in need of math tutoring. Refreshingly, Ana is torn between two guys who are both fundamentally kind, though the school has its share of build-the-wall bullies. But as a budding poet (her journals punctuate the chapters), Ana's real love affair is with language itself. Andreu captures Ana's cultural and linguistic roller coaster with eloquence and precision, as Ana wonders "if learning one language doesn't sometimes mean forgetting a little bit of another," a process described as bittersweetly as coming-of-age itself. Ages 14–up. Agency: Alloy Entertainment.