In this stunning, passionate YA novel, a teen and her community grapple with the impossible, complicated scenario of being forced to choose between jobs and health.
Mexican American teen Paloma's beloved Southern California town is inundated with warehouses for Selva, a mega e-commerce company. Selva's arrival brought jobs along with all the associated pollution and physical hardships on workers. Two years ago, Paloma and ex-boyfriend Julio learned about the group scholarship, Projects for Purpose, and planned to apply together: $100,000 each and a publication in the Young Scholars Journal. There, Paloma could raise national awareness about Selva's detrimental impact on the community. However, Julio's father died of lung cancer, and he stopped speaking to Paloma. Now, six months until graduation, Paloma's father insists on walking the picket line despite his clearly declining health. Reluctantly--and independently of each other--Paloma and Julio realize their best chance at winning the scholarship is to work together.
Pura Belpré Award winner Carolina Ixta (Shut Up, This Is Serious) pulls no punches in this painful yet tentatively hopeful novel inspired by true events about the disproportionate placement of warehouses "in areas with higher concentrations of Black and Latino residents." Despite the agonizing subject matter, Ixta's writing is dazzlingly lyrical, as when Paloma and her father go to fill a prescription alongside "so many people bending into their elbows," their coughs are "cacophonous, harmonizing, echoing through the pharmacy line." Few Blue Skies is well suited for fans of Jennifer Mathieu's Down Came the Rain and Ellen Hagan's Don't Call Me a Hurricane. Includes a map, author's note, and an impressive, extensive bibliography. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor