LASSO THE MOON (Laurel-Leaf Books) - Softcover

Covington, Dennis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0440220130 ISBN 13: 9780440220138

Publisher: Laurel Leaf, 1996

Synopsis

When 17-year-old April Hunter first sees Fernando, it is easy to dismiss him as just another of her father's indigent Latin American patients.
Yet, despite her feelings, April can't keep herself from thinking about Fernando. How did he get the horrendous scar on his neck? What is his birthplace, El Paraiso, El Salvador, like? As curiosity turns to fascination and fascination to love, April learns the horrifying and mind-boggling story of Fernando's life. But when she hears a different story from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, she has to wonder whom to trust.

About this title

Review

April is curious about her father's new patient Fernando, an El Salvadorian refugee. Soon, her curiosity turns to fascination, and it's not long before her heart becomes tangled with feelings of love for the young man with the frightening past. When Immigration and Naturalization Service officials begin snooping around and threatening her father for helping Fernando, she discovers a whole new side to the man who raised her. Dennis Covington is a brilliant storyteller--crafting these characters with realism, compassion, and just enough of a rough edge so that they sparkle from the page. This is a powerful tale of many different kinds of love.

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up?After her parents divorce and her father finally gets his alcoholism under control, April is happy to be living in his rustic island home. And yet, in a strange way, she is attached to the pain and unpredictability that used to dominate her life. Then she meets and falls in love with Fernando, 19, an illegal alien and political exile from El Salvador. He has a magnetism that is both unsettling and irresistible, and possesses strength and wisdom that contrast powerfully with his fragile appearance. She shields him from the INS investigators and educates herself in the culture and politics of his homeland. Their experiences have been radically different, yet their emotional challenges bear striking similarities. Unlike April, however, Fernando has worked through his pain, found a purpose, and is able to articulate his thoughts beautifully. Through the young woman's first-person narrative, Covington cleverly weaves together familiar YA themes with those of immigration and a foreign culture. Readers share April's compassion for Fernando and his frightening story of persecution. But he is no Prince Charming, and there is no fairy-tale ending. Fernando is a believable individual whose dash of ambiguity makes him intriguing. The author has exchanged the quirky characters and slightly bizarre world of his successful first novel, Lizard (Delacorte, 1991), for a much more realistic creation. His considerable skills as a storyteller make this book a worthy purchase.?Margaret Cole, Oceanside Library, NY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Laurel Leaf
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0440220130
• ISBN 13: 9780440220138
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 196