We Were Here by Matt de la Pena

Why should you read We Were Here?  And how does it fit this reading series? 

(Again, please excuse all the movement. This is something I need to work on.)

Memorable Quotes:

• "I told my moms the same thing when we were walking out of the courtroom together. I said, 'Yo, Ma, this isn't so bad, right? I thgough those people would lock me up and throw away the key.' She didn't say anything back, though. Didn't look at me either. Matter of fact, she didn't look at me all the way up till the day she had to drive me to Juvenile Hall, drop me off at the gate, where two big beefy white guards were waiting to escort me into the building.... I looked over my shoulder as they walked me through the gate, but she still wasn't looking at me. It's okay though. U understood why. It's cause of what I did." (p. 6) 
• This quote is from Miquel's descriptions of paintings in his group home.
• "All of a sudden she started sobbing and she rushed up and hugged me mad tight. Laid her old grandma head on my shoulder. And I'm not gonna lie, man, I went stiff as a board in her arms. And it wasn't nothing to do with her. I love the hell out of my grandma. I just knew her hug was trying to tell me I was still her grandson, even after everything I did, and it made me sick about myself. 'Cause we both knew I didn't deserve it." (p. 330)

Cherry on Top:


The use of real life vernacular may startle you at first and it may disrupt your reading pace, but once you become used to the vocabulary, this language will illuminate a story and tale so current in its needs to be written about and read upon that you won't be able to put the text down.


Connecting with the Text:

Author Interview

Matt de la Pena

Insightful Quote from Matt de la Pena's webpage: 

"I follow another bi-racial character in WWH. The book was also inspired by two major elements that I pulled from my own experience. First, for two years I worked in a group home in San Jose, California. These kids were just out of juvi and thuggish, but many of them also had an incredible amount of heart. I wanted to show them to readers. But I also had a basketball teammate in college who had unintentionally committed an awful, unthinkable crime. I often watched him. Sometimes he would laugh and joke with the rest and then drift away, his eyes emptying out. In the book I use his crime.

The novel is also my ode to some of the literature that inspired me to pick up a pen myself including: Of Mice and Men, The Color Purple and Catcher in the Rye."

Click here to visit Matt de la Pena's website.