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Summary
Summary
Twelve-year-old Manuel leaves his small town in Mexico to join his older brother in Los Angeles. To cross the US border, he must become a "beast rider"-someone who hops on a train. The first time he tries, he is stopped by the Mexican police, who arrest and beat him. When he tries again, he is attacked by a Mexican gang and left for dead. Just when Manuel is ready to turn back, he finds new hope. Villagers clothe and feed him, help him find work, and eventually boost him back onto the train. When he finally arrives in LA and is reunited with his brother, he is elated. But the longer he's there, the more he realizes that something isn't right. Thrilling and heartfelt,Beast Rideris a coming-of-age story that reveals how a place and its people help to define you.
Author Notes
Tony Johnston was born in Los Angeles, California on January 30, 1942. She received a B.A. in history and an M.A in education from Stanford University. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a fourth-grade teacher.
She has written over 70 books for children. Her titles include Amber on the Mountain, the Cowboy and the Black-Eyed Pea, Day of the Dead, the Ghost of Nicholas Greebe, the Sparky and Eddie series, and the Adventures of Mole and Troll. Her first adult novel was Any Small Goodness.
Her works have earned her several awards including a Children's Choice Award for Four Scary Stories and the Beatty Award in 2002 for Any Small Goodness.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-The train that passes near Manuel's family farm in Mexico is called The Beast, and Beast Riders are those who jump onto this moving train headed toward the U.S. Manuel has a loving family, but life on the farm is difficult, and he longs to be reunited with his older brother who reached Los Angeles four years earlier. He slips away from home one night at the age of 12 and becomes a Beast Rider himself. Although Manuel knows the ride will be challenging, he is not prepared for the cunning tactics of thieves and gangs; he is beset by violence multiple times, and his severe injuries prolong his journey. With the help of kind strangers and a group of smugglers hired by his brother, Manuel finally arrives in Los Angeles at the age of 15. Their reunion is joyful, but Manuel struggles to become accustomed to life as an undocumented immigrant in a large city and must decide whether this new life is really what he wants. This story feels personal and real; it does not romanticize or try to fully tackle the complex issue of immigration. Manuel narrates in a frank, unflinching manner, using a well-crafted combination of short, abrupt thoughts and longer descriptive sentences. Spanish words and phrases are woven expertly throughout the narrative. Back matter includes a glossary of terms and their English counterparts, as well as an authors' note giving context about real-life Beast Riders. VERDICT Told directly and effectively, this story gives readers an opportunity to be present for one young man's harrowing journey as an immigrant to the U.S.-Sarah Reid, Four County Library System, NY © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this often wrenching story about Manuel, a 12-year-old boy from Oaxaca, Mexico, the authors convey what motivates him to leave his poverty-stricken life to ride "the Beast" (a train heading to the U.S. border) and the hardships he faces during the journey and upon arrival. Told in short, action-packed chapters and in Manuel's distinctive first-person, present-tense voice, the compact tale covers long miles and several years. The brutal narration details constant movement and determined forward motion, despite daunting setbacks: "Here I am on this terror train thundering to The North. I am hungry. I am thirsty. I am tired.... Though crushed against many other people, I am lonely to the bone." Manuel encounters dishonesty, theft, cruelty, gang brutality, and mercenaries, as well as kind strangers, healers, protectors, and friends. Upon his reunion in Los Angeles with his beloved brother, Manuel's traumatic experiences haunt and hinder his ability to adapt to his new home. Johnston (Bone by Bone by Bone) and de Rhoads (a psychotherapist and debut author) offer a sympathetic, illuminating portrait of the challenges faced by one undocumented immigrant. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Manuel follows in his brother's footsteps as he jumps a train that will take him to the U.S.-Mexico border."Call me Manuel." Johnston and Fontanot de Rhoads evoke Moby-Dick's iconic opening in setting the scene for Manuel, a 12-year-old Mexican boy, to conquer The Beast and reunite with his brother Too. Leaving behind his corn-farming family and the milpita they work in Oaxaca, Manuel rides The Beast, a name given by locals to the many trains traveling north. For many The Beast is a vehicle that will lead them to their hopes and dreams. For others, it is a monster that will tear away their limbs and disable them for life. With danger lurking on each train car, Manuel must be cautious of the brutal gangs that prey on the weak and rely on the bond that unites migrants on their harrowing journey and the patrons who help riders tame The Beast. Like the chugging of The Beast, Johnston's poetic prose permeates Manuel's journey and gives a steady rhythm to the story even as Oaxaca-based psychotherapist and translator Fontanot de Rhoads provides details to ground it. Without shying away from the cruel and often crude journey that migrants experience, the authors deliver a captivating story of travelers dreaming a better future and their incandescent fight to achieve it.A beautiful, visceral plunge into the perils that the train-jumping migrant brotherhood experiences. (Fiction. 12-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
A Mexican boy makes the treacherous journey to Los Angeles to find his older brother in this timely novel. Manuel loves his family, his dog, and his dusty corn plot. But he dearly misses his older brother, Toño, who hopped the train to America. Despite the dangers of riding the beast it can dismember hopeful riders as they try to board, and its passengers often face violence from police and gangs Manuel hops the train, too. During his three-year journey, Manuel meets with both violent cruelty and extraordinary kindness. When he makes it to Los Angeles and to Toño, Manuel is finally safe, but he wonders if Los Angeles will ever feel like home. The authors do not shy away from the brutal realities of Manuel's journey, but they also glory in the kindness and love of strangers, giving this harrowing story a balance of fear and hope. Manuel is a resilient protagonist who feels the effects of his traumatic passage but also displays a fierce commitment to finding home, wherever that may be. A tough yet hopeful immigration story.--Mariko Turk Copyright 2019 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
LARGER-THAN-LIFE heroes like Captain America, Batman and Superman now grace our screens year-round, projecting an idea of masculinity characterized by unfettered strength. Yet ask any teenage boy what growing up is like, and he'll likely give answers that are starkly different from the endless displays of male determination and domination we often see in entertainment. Rather, the process of growing up can make even the most confident of boys feel lost, aimless, confused and powerless. Three new Y.A. novels explore that tension, showcasing different tenors of young male vulnerability. IN BARELY MISSING EVERYTHING (Atheneum, 320 pp., $17.99; ages 12 and up), Matt Mendez gives us a peek into the lives of three people - Mexican-Americans living near the border - who have lost their way: Juan, a star basketball player who has a run-in with the law; JD, Juan's best friend; and Fabi, Juan's mom. Each is spiraling for different reasons. Juan is arrested at a party after a basketball game and his ankle is injured in the process. Now he's worried that his injury will jeopardize his basketball career, casting doubt over a potential scholarship and his future. JD is an aspiring filmmaker, but his home life is thrown into turmoil when his father's affair comes to light. And Fabi is trying her best to care for Juan while feeling aimless herself, when she unexpectedly receives a letter from an ex-boyfriend who is on death row and is scheduled to be executed on Valentine's Day. If that sounds like a lot of plot, that's because it is. And there's also a pseudo-love interest in Roxanne, a leering gang that seems to have it in for Juan and JD, and a mystery over Juan's parentage, just to name a few other plot points. Oh, and an interlude delivered from the perspective of ... an algebra test? All these story lines struggle for airtime. Toward the beginning of the novel, Juan reads the letter from Fabi's ex-boyfriend and assumes the man is his father, but that plot is set aside, and referenced sporadically, until Juan and JD come up with a plan to visit the jail almost 100 pages later. Roxanne first appears as a girl whom Juan tries to flirt with at school, and then she isn't seen again until a few chapters later, suddenly reappearing as Juan's friend's cousin, who turns into Juan's math tutor. (In addition to worrying about his ankle, Juan must pass his algebra test or else he's off the team.) But despite a brief flirtation between the two, Roxanne never fully develops as a character. And the aforementioned gang pops in and out of the book, making you too often forget they're even there, until they precipitate a conclusion that feels rushed. Still, Mendez offers enticing glimpses of Mexican-American life, and he has an uncanny ability to capture the aimless bluster of young boys posturing at confidence, behaving rashly to mask feeling insecure. "JD wondered what everything would look like outside the city limits, once they were no longer in the desert," he writes. "How different would the air be? The landscape? The look of the sky? Would he be able to breathe the difference or feel it somehow? Would he be different? Could he be?" In meditations like this, we can almost feel the existential claustrophobia of adolescence. If only Mendez had dived more deeply into those themes. ZACK SMEDLEY'S DEPOSING NATHAN (Page Street Kids, 400 pp.,$17.99; ages 12 and up) has a propulsive start: "What you have to understand about Cam - and this is important - is that up until he jammed a shard of ceramic in my gut, he was the best friend I've ever had." Nate has been called to give sworn testimony against Cam, and the book is told through a present-day deposition and extended flashbacks that track our two characters until the moment of this climactic fight. The result is an interesting tale in its own right, told in a surprising form - a stylistic experiment that becomes a charming look at the formation and deterioration of an unlikely friendship between two boys who are both lost in their own ways. Nate is trying to get through high school under the ever-increasing pressure of his abusive aunt, and Cam is the new kid in school who has an eidetic memory, resulting in "memory attacks," where he is unable to stop remembering painful instants from his past. Midway through, "Deposing Nathan" pivots into a deft exploration of sexuality. Cam and Nate realize they are bisexual and may or may not be in love with each other, all the while grappling with their personal religious beliefs and achieving varying degrees of self-acceptance. It's a rewarding twist, especially considering that in the canon of L.G.B.T.Q. literature, the "B" for bisexual is not as often represented as some of the other letters are. Some of the plot feels predictable, especially a surprise that comes at the end of the deposition, and sometimes the dialogue feels over the top. Still, "Deposing Nathan" is a superb story, told in an original and masterly way. Smedley navigates the novel's refreshing ideas about sexuality and religion with grace and intelligence. And most of all, Nate and Cam's friendship feels complex, authentic and heartwarming, both when it's at its most ridiculous and when it's at its most painful. rather than exploring vulnerability from within, Tony Johnston and Maria Elena Fontanot de Rhoads's beast rider (Amulet, 176 pp., $17.99; ages 12 and up) tracks the greater systems outside of us that can leave us feeling exposed and defenseless. The book details the journey of Manuel, a boy from Oaxaca, Mexico, who leaves his home to travel north and cross the border to the United States. His mode of transportation? La Bestia, "a network of freight trains that move from Southern Mexico to the U.S. border," Johnston and Fontanot de Rhoads explain in an authors' note. Manuel doesn't initially plan on making the journey, despite missing his brother Toño, who rode the Beast a few years prior and now lives undocumented in Los Angeles. But when Manuel discovers a young boy who is injured and eventually dies from wounds sustained during his time on the Beast, inspiration strikes: Manuel dreams that the boy tells him, "I failed, but you - a sign, as sure as anything!" Yet the trip is anything but simple. Manuel is soon robbed, and that's just the start of a series of obstacles - from gangs to the police - that Manuel must face. "Beast Rider" is a short book, coming in at 176 quick pages, a good choice for readers toward the younger end of the Y.A. spectrum. And that is the book's greatest strength and its biggest weakness. Some plot points and emotional beats feel as if they end before they even get started. For instance, midway through his journey, Manuel wants to call his family back home, but when he reaches into his pocket, he discovers that the slip of paper with his family's phone number is missing. It's a chapter-ending Cliffhanger ... that is resolved two pages later when Manuel realizes that he actually memorized the phone numbers. Yet given that the plight of Latinos fleeing to the North is such a big and important subject, it's impressive how much information Johnston and Fontanot de Rhoads are able to share, so economically: the violence migrants face during their journey to the States, the help from strangers they receive along the way, the danger that can be found at the border, and the challenges that new immigrants face when they're in the United States. This novel is as sharp as it is brief. MJ franklin is an editor on The Times's social desk.