Menasha Public Library (Elisha D. Smith)

The everything I have lost, by Sylvia Zéleny

eng

no index present

fiction

The everything I have lost

1061864523

by Sylvia Zéleny

"Julia's best friend is her diary. She calls it "My Everything" -- twelve-years-old at its beginning and fifteen at the end; a girl at the beginning, a young woman at its end, knowing more than she ever wanted to know. Julia tells her diary everything about growing up in Juárez. At first, her family loses their house and their car, then suddenly her father is making lots of money. The family has a new car and a new house. It doesn't make sense. Her father's gone a lot, and her mother is always distracted and worried, busy creating art and wondering where her husband is. Life in Julia's urban neighborhood is strange too: there are shootings in the middle of the street, cars and neighbors disappear, pet cats and entire homes are left behind. Girls are disappearing somewhere in the city. She hears people saying that drug cartels rule the streets, but who are they? She only knows that she and her brother can't play outside. And she is becoming a young woman in the midst of this confusion and uncertainty. She wants to move across the river to the United States where her aunt and cousins live. Julia writes about all this and about things she overhears, things she doesn't quite understand, and things she simply tries not to think about. Then her father vanishes for real and Julia and her brother go to live with her aunt in El Paso. What's happened to Dad? Will he come back? Nobody wants to answer. And Julia can only make lists of those things she loses." --, Provided by publisherJulia was twelve when she began "My Everything" -- her diary. She tells it all about growing up in Juárez. At first, her family loses their house and their car, then suddenly her father is making lots of money. Her father is gone a lot. In the neighborhood, there are shootings in the middle of the street, cars and neighbors disappear, pet cats and entire homes are left behind. Girls are disappearing. Julia hears people saying that drug cartels rule the streets, but she only knows that she and her brother can't play outside. She wants to move across the river to the United States where her aunt and cousins live. When her father vanishes for real, Julia and her brother go to live with her aunt in El Paso. And Julia can only make lists of those things she loses. -- abridged from publisher info

adolescent