Ari's life seems perfect with a supportive family, close friends, and success in school and sports. However, beneath this seemingly ideal surface, he grapples with personal challenges and the pressures of maintaining his status. As he navigates these complexities, Ari embarks on a journey of self-discovery that reveals the true meaning of happiness and fulfillment. Through his experiences, the story explores themes of identity, friendship, and the struggle to balance external expectations with inner desires.
After years of living with uncertainty, first with his mother and then in foster care, J.P.’s life isfinally becoming more predictable, routine, and even comfortable. Now that he is safely livingwith his father, his stepmother and his two half-sisters, J.P. is finally enjoying the opportunity tolearn more about himself. He is not a fan of school, mostly because it’s hard for him, but heresolves to do well enough to ensure academic eligibility for the wrestling team, as his sightsare set on winning a state championship that year.J.P.’s father, Juan, is also learning – learning how to contend with the challenges that come withraising a teenager. Juan tries to better understand his son who has recently come to live withhim and attempts to make a better connection by letting J.P. know that he, too, was once awrestler back in Mexico. A luchador mexicano. The conversations between the two arepeppered with reminders of J.P.’s desire to get his driver’s license, as he desperately wants tofit in with all of his friends who are also headed to the DMV. But there is a problem, one heknows nothing about, and one that Juan hopes can be fixed before J.P. finds out.In this novel, readers are presented with a wealth of vocabulary and verb tenses while focusingon family and social issues, with the cultural component being that of Mexican wrestling – lalucha mexicana.
