Elizabeth Acevedo is an artisan with words. Her prose the golden threads that weave together a narrative whose tapestry is a wonder to behold.
Cecelia Beckman, Sheaf & Ink
The Story: Clap When You Land
Clap When You Land is about two young girls. The Atlantic between them. A secret that holds them apart. A plane crash that reveals the truth.
Camino Rios and Yahaira Rios must face an unimaginable reality, one without their father. And as that truth sets like varnish, Camino and Yahaira must come to terms with each other, sisters they never knew existed, and an altered future, where the varnish has been removed and the restorations begin.
My Review
Buy Clap When You Land.
Read Clap When You Land.
Listen to Clap When You Land.
Do one or all, but experience this book.
I recently was in a major book slump. As though the color was leached from my bookshelves, the window covers drawn, the silence deafening. So many books. So many choices. But out of the countless choices, I didn’t know which book would be the one. The one to pull me out of my never-ending humdrumness, my inability to read.
But my idle hands brushed against each spine feather light, yet unsure. Remaining for no more than a second. Moving from one book to the next. Row to row. Shelf to shelf. Until I reached it. My fingertips skimmed the edges, tracing the length of its colorful spine and I knew it was time to read. With care, I pulled the book from off the shelf. Curled up on the nearest seat and began to read. The pages brimmed with captivating, delicious, and beautiful words, like a bubbling cauldron filled with a magic brew. Numerous pages marked with colored paper, a reminder, a trail like bread crumbs, of those indelible words I couldn’t live without.
A Few More Thoughts
Elizabeth Acevedo has done it again. She has taken the air from the room and infused it with something more. Something that is undeniably life-giving, life-quenching. She plucks a piece of our past, Flight AA587, and like a master sculptor settling into their work space, takes the clay into hand, shaping, molding, and bringing her masterpiece to life.
Acevedo is a brilliant writer. She knows how to create vivid images of a place I’ve never been, but now long to experience. You can tell this is a place that is hers. A place she treasures. The colors, the scents, the sounds, all that is the Dominican Republic was vibrant wrapped in warmth that is both familiar and new.
One Last Thing
In Clap When You Land we experience the hurt, the grief, the loss of these two sisters in such an acute way. Their feelings laid bare, mirrored images of the same pain. And yet there was still that warmth, even in the depths of sorrow, enhanced like a lullaby a mother sings to her newborn babe, soft and sweet, that resonance of hope.
Coalescing the bonds of family, the fathomless grief, and that spark of hope into beautifully redolent measured verse leaves me humbled and forever grateful Acevedo became an author.
Pure magic.
Happy Reading ̴ Cece
RATING: 
– Exceptionally Inked
Author: Elizabeth Acevedo
Publisher: Harperteen
Publication Date: May, 2020
Pages: 432
ISBN-10: 0062882767
ISBN-13: 978-0062882769
Audience: 14 and up
Jacket Art: Bijou Karman
Jacket Design: Erin Fitzsimmons
Similar Books to Clap When You Land Recommended by Sheaf and Ink
With the Fire on High, Elizabeth Acevedo
You Should See Me in a Crown, Leah Johnson
Need More Book Recommendations?
Sheaf & Ink has reviewed a number of Young Adult novels in verse and contemporary coming-of-age novels like Clap When You Land. Read Long Way Down and With the Fire on High reviews to find your next favorite book and join the conversation. We love hearing from you.
Sheaf & Ink Book Long Way Down, by Jason Reynolds
Sheaf & Ink Book Review With the Fire on High, by Elizabeth Acevedo
