Pedro & Daniel

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Pedro & Daniel

Title:

Pedro & Daniel

Author:

Erebia, Federico, author.

Kwon, Julie, illustrator.

Summary:

Pedro and Daniel are Mexican American brothers growing up in 1970s Ohio. Their mother resents that Pedro is a spitting image of their darker-skinned father; that Daniel likes dolls; that neither boy plays sports. Both are gay and neurodivergent. They are alike, but they are dissimilar in their struggles, their dreams, their approach to life. -- Goodreads.

Physical Description:

xii, 425 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Genre:

Bildungsromans.

Subject Term:

Brothers -- Fiction.

Mexican Americans -- Fiction.

Child abuse -- Fiction

Gays -- Fiction.

Neurodiversity -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Ohio -- Fiction.

Author(s):

Kwon, Julie,

Publisher:

Levine Querido,

Publication Date:

2023

ISBN:

9781646143047

Publication Information:

Montclair [New Jersey] : Levine Querido, 2023.

Call Number:

YA EREBIA

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003671024	New Young Adult	EREBIA	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

KIRKUS BEST OF THE YEAR

Pedro and Daniel are Mexican American brothers growing up in 1970s Ohio. Their mom doesn't like that Pedro is a spitting image of their darker-skinned father, that Daniel plays with dolls, that neither of the boys love sports like the other kids in their neighborhood. Life at home can be rough - but the boys have an unshakable bond that will last their entire lives.

Pedro & Daniel is a sweeping and deeply personal novel - illustrated with beautiful linework throughout by Julie Kwon - that spans from childhood to teenage years to adulthood, all the while tracing the lives of two brothers who are there for each other when no one else is. Together the brothers manage an abusive home life, school, coming out, first loves, first jobs, and the AIDS epidemic, in a coming-of-age story unlike any other.

P R A I S E

★ "Pedro and Daniel's journey, whether together or apart, is an unforgettable one of resilience and, most of all, love. Stunning."

-- Kirkus Reviews (starred)

★ "Luminous. Riveting. Uplifting and heart-wrenching."

-- Publishers Weekly (starred)

★ "Devastatingly beautiful."

-- Shelf-Awareness (starred)

"A powerful coming-of-age story that is unforgettable."

-- Booklist

"Artistically ambitious and unflinchingly personal...shines with the depiction of connection, love, and overcoming adversity."

-- BCCB

"A multi-layered and nuanced story."

-- School Library Connection

Author Notes

Federico Erebia is a retired physician, artist, woodworker, author, and illustrator. His artisanry, woodwork, furniture design, and books have been featured in magazines, newspapers, radio, and television. He is an active member of several writing groups. Pedro & Danie l is his debut novel. He lives in Massachusetts with his husband, and their westie and whippet.

Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 7 Up--Erebia's debut novel is "fiction based on [his] memorable relationship with Daniel, [his] brother," his introduction reveals, which also warns of the "many forms of abuse depicted in these stories." Daniel died at 30 in 1993: "To remember is to live again." Veteran Spanish-fluent narrators Corzo and Pabon cipher the five parts. Corzo is the aching voice of Part One, when the brothers are tiny children surviving the senseless onslaughts of their brutal mother. Erebia explains his third-person narration here--emulating the distanced perspectives of those who knew yet never intervened. Pabon commands the book's majority, in which Erebia adopts first-person, reflecting the brothers' asserting their voices. Pabon, alas, is surprisingly disappointing in distinguishing the pair, except in the final chapters when adult Daniel sounds more caricatured than convincing. VERDICT For the more resonating experience, choose the page; it's a visual homage to Erebia's hybrid verse/prose/dichos (proverbs) exposition, enhanced with Julie Kwon's empathic art.

Publisher's Weekly Review

In this luminous semi-autobiographical debut, told across five parts starting in the late 1960s, Erebia shares interconnected stories that render fictionalized versions of himself and his younger brother. While Mexican American Pedro is technically older than Daniel, the brothers are "very much alike, as if they are twins born fifteen months apart." Though they live with three sisters and an older brother, Pedro and Daniel endure the brunt of their mother's physical and verbal abuse, as she singles both out for their refusal to play sports ("Mom says all her boys must like sports.... There will be no exceptions!"). She disparages Pedro in particular for inheriting his father's darker skin tone. Erebia mixes the brothers' illuminating alternating third-person POVs with perspectives of adults throughout their community to present a layered, thoroughly riveting telling that follows Pedro and Daniel from 1968 toddlerhood to young adulthood in 1992. As the pair chase their respective dreams of being a priest and a doctor, navigate suicidal ideation, and combat discrimination based on colorism, neurodivergence, race, sexuality, and terminal illness, Erebia deftly weaves together the boys' everyday joys with the seriousness of their situations, presenting a clear portrait of two brothers' fierce love that is by turns uplifting and heart-wrenching. Emotive illustrations by Kwon (Peter Lee's Notes from the Field) appear throughout. Ages 12--up. (June)