Listen to Acevedo read the opening of her book Clap When You Land. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Acevedo, Elizabeth. CLAP WHEN YOU LAND. New York: Harper Teen, 2020. ISBN: 978-0-06-288276-9.

PLOT SUMMARY:  Camino Rios lives in the Dominican Republic.  Yahaira Rios lives in New York.  One summer day, when Camino is waiting for her father to visit her, the unexpected happens.  The plane he was on crashes.  Without knowing that the other one exists, their lives will be forever changed.  As both girls try to understand their father’s secrets, they go through an emotional rollercoaster as they face life with a new sister and without their father. 

ANALYSIS:  Camino is a sixteen-year-old who lives with her aunt in the Dominican Republic.  She always looks forward to the summers when her father visits her.  Thanks to the money that her father sends her aunt, Camino and her aunt can have some commodities that not everyone in their neighborhood have such as having internet and an electric generator.  Camino also attends a private school.  Camino also helps her aunt, who is a healer.  Camino dreams of going to the United States to study to become a doctor. 

Yahaira is two months younger than Camino.  She used to play chess, which she was good at even though she admits that she did not love it.  She mostly played because her father taught her how to play and it made him proud how good she was.  Yahaira considers herself as a good student that is predictable and follows the rules.  She enjoys spending her time with her girlfriend Dre.  After finding out that her father had another wife, she is resentful of her father and stops taking to him. 

SETTING: Yahaira and her mother live in New York in the neighborhood Morningside Heights.  It is described as a place where a mix of people such as Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Haitians, Black Americans and Columbians live. 

Camino lives in the Dominican Republic in a neighborhood where people struggle more financially.  Camino and  her aunt are better off because her father would send money from the United States.

Some of the Dominican foods that are prepared at Camino’s and Yahaira’s homes are the pastelón, arroz con guandules, cassava and sancocho. 

THEME:  The theme of the book is depicting Latino life and culture.  In this book, the author shows how life in the Dominican Republic is as well as how it is in New York for a Dominican family.  She also shows how families grief a lost member. 

CULTURAL MARKERS:

Author qualifications to write relating to the culture

Acevedo is Dominican-American which qualifies her to write relating to the culture.  Acevedo has family in the Dominican Republic which she has been able to visit.  She also worked with a couple of people to help her learn more about healers

Use of non-English words

The words in Spanish are spelled correctly and sound natural within the text.  Someone who does not know Spanish might have to look up for the definition of words since there is not always a translation provided after the Spanish word. 

Item overall high quality

Acevedo has done a great job with this novel in verse.  By writing it in alternating points of views between Camino and Yahaira, the reader can better understand their different emotions as they go through the death of their father and finding out about the existence of each other.

CONNECTIONS:  Students will answer questions using a collaborative board on Nearpod.  The first question is based on sisterhood.  The second question is based on grief and loss.  They will also have to post a reply to someone’s answer.  Students will be assigned a number to post on their initial reply to keep names private and to know who they responded to. 

Nearpod link

https://app.nearpod.com/?pin=AAF7A1617AB505A1963C521E089C7943-1

Questions retrieved from:

https://b0f646cfbd7462424f7a-f9758a43fb7c33cc8adda0fd36101899.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/teaching-guides/TG-9780062882769.pdf