When Alan Gratz wrote his book Two Degrees, he originally had Daniela Lopez and her own unique story of how climate change impacted her life included with the stories of Akira, Natalie, Owen and George. But the page count was too long so Gratz left a bit of a tease in the final chapters of the book and hoped to one day tell her story. Flight is that story of Honduran Dani and her family are forced to abandon their coffee bean farm in the mountains when rising temperatures allow a fungus to grow and kill the fragile plants. When gangs in their new home threaten to kill them after Dani’s mom gives a witness statement about a murder, she, her parents and younger brother Carlos decide to head to the United States via Mexico but once again, tragedy thwarts their plans and the children are separated from their parents and forced to head by themselves atop a speeding train to a town on the border between the two countries. The dangers, both from the conditions on the train as well as other refugees and various nefarious groups, abound, but Dani finds a way to protect the two of them and reach their destination.
Much of Dani and Carlos’ experiences are based on facts learned by Gratz as he researched real life scenarios of those who have also embarked on a hopeful journey north. Names of places are sometimes changed and certainly the names of characters in his book are fictional, but readers are likely to gain new understanding of possible reasons for those who attempt to immigrate to the United States via legal and illegal methods. The action is near non-stop and with the low page of 96, even those with low reading stamina are likely to finish this one. Be warned, though. Some will be disappointed that while Dani and Carlos’ story ends with a feeling of hope, it is definitely left unfinished!
Bonus material is included at the book’s end—Background on Gratz’s intention to include Dani in Two Degrees as well as brief summaries of many of Gratz’s other historical fiction, action/adventure titles such as Heroes, Refugee (traditional format as well as graphic novel), Allies and its novella Resist, and War Games.
*Target age: grades 4 and up
*Profanity: none
*Sexual content: It is possible that questions may arise among some readers about why Dani is so careful to hide the fact she is female and why young girls were separated and transported some place different than the others but neither sexual abuse nor forced prostitution is mentioned.
*Violence: Threats of physical harm, kidnappers who use guns and other weapons to subdue their targets, a resistance by immigrants against kidnappers results in several being tossed off the train to likely deaths, etc. None of the violence is overly graphic and is appropriate to both the subject and the target audience.
*Representation: Characters are primarily from Central America or Mexico.
*LBGTQ+: none