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Product Description Newbery Award-winning author Matt de la Peña's We Were Here is a "fast, funny, smart, and heartbreaking" novel [Booklist]. When it happened, Miguel was sent to Juvi. The judge gave him a year in a group home—said he had to write in a journal so some counselor could try to figure out how he thinks. The judge had no idea that he actually did Miguel a favor. Ever since it happened, his mom can’t even look at him in the face. Any home besides his would be a better place to live. But Miguel didn’t bet on meeting Rondell or Mong or on any of what happened after they broke out. He only thought about Mexico and getting to the border to where he could start over. Forget his mom. Forget his brother. Forget himself. Life usually doesn’ t work out how you think it will, though. And most of the time, running away is the quickest path right back to what you’re running from. From the streets of Stockton to the beaches of Venice, all the way to the Mexican border, We Were Here follows a journey of self-discovery by a boy who is trying to forgive himself in an unforgiving world. " Fast, funny, smart, and heartbreaking...The contemporary survival adventure will keep readers hooked."- Booklist "This gripping story about underprivileged teens is a rewarding read."- VOYA " A furiously paced and gripping novel."- Publishers Weekly " A story of friendship that will appeal to teens and will engage the most reluctant readers."- Kirkus Reviews An ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young ReadersAn ALA-YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant ReadersA Junior Library Guild Selection Review " Fast, funny, smart, and heartbreaking...The contemporary survival adventure will keep readers hooked."- Booklist "This gripping story about underprivileged teens is a rewarding read."- VOYA " A furiously paced and gripping novel."- Publishers Weekly " A story of friendship that will appeal to teens and will engage the most reluctant readers."- Kirkus Reviews An ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young ReadersAn ALA-YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant ReadersA Junior Library Guild Selection About the Author Matt de la Peña is the first Mexican American author to win the Newbery Medal. He attended the University of the Pacific on a basketball scholarship and went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at San Diego State University. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he teaches creative writing. We Were Here is his third novel. Look for his other books, Ball Don’t Lie, Mexican WhiteBoy, I Will Save You, The Living, which was named a Pura Belpré Honor Book, and The Hunted, all available from Delacorte Press. You can also visit him at mattdelapena.com and follow @mattdelapena on Twitter. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. May 13 Here’s the thing: I was probably gonna write a book when I got older anyways. About what it’s like growing up on the levee in Stockton, where every other person you meet has missing teeth or is leaning against a liquor store wall begging for change to buy beer. Or maybe it’d be about my dad dying in the stupid war and how at the funeral they gave my mom some cheap medal and a folded flag and shot a bunch of rifles at the clouds. Or maybe the book would just be something about me and my brother, Diego. How we hang mostly by ourselves, pulling corroded-looking fish out of the murky levee water and throwing them back. How sometimes when Moms falls asleep in front of the TV we’ll sneak out of the apartment and walk around the neighborhood, looking into other people’s windows, watching them sleep. That’s the weirdest thing, by the way. That every person you come across lays down in a bed, under the covers, and closes their eyes at night. Cops, teachers, parents, hot girls, pro ballers, everybody. For some reason it makes people seem so much less real when I look at them. Anyways, at first I was worried standing there next to the hunchback old man they gave me for a lawyer, both of us waiting f