For our August read, we had the joy of diving into This Train is Being Held by Ismée Williams. The novel follows teenagers Isa and Alex who meet (over and over again) on the subway in New York City and fall in love.
We all thought that this story was quite extraordinary because we didn’t just get a love story, but we got fully fleshed out characters with flaws, issues, and problems.
Major themes of the book include racism (both Isa and Alex are Latinx), passion and to work hard for what you want, difficult relationships with parents, money issues, mental health problems, and everything else you could possibly encounter and fret over as a teen.
We had a great time reading This Train is Being Held and admittedly most discussed the micro aggressions Alex faces because of his skin colour. Besides discussing the scenes and whether we had ever witnessed anything like that, some of us also began contemplating whether we have ever been guilty of doing any of the things people did to Alex (sometimes probably unknowingly). Our discussions were as much outrage as they were contemplative.
One extra special treat this month was that we were able to chat to Ismée directly in a live chat. We got to ask her everything that we wanted to know, including whether or not she went on the subway specifically to people watch for her novel. We got talking about musicians and artists on the subway, as well as baseball and ballet, and she even revealed that one of the scenes in the book has happened to her in real life.
She also told us about her involvement in the Latinx Kid Lit Book Festival, which is organised by Las Musas, a collective of female and non-binary Latinx authors. The festival is going live on the 4th and 5th of December, so you should all mark in your calendars! There are going to be Q&As and panels with all of your favourite Latinx authors and illustrators!
As for our September read, we are diving into the fantastic A Star is Bored by Byron Lane. Can’t wait to discuss!
