Remember Me: We Were Here

People want to be remembered. Nobody wants to be forgotten after they are gone. They want someone to recall that they were here.

Miguel, Rondell, and Mong all want to be remembered in the novel We Were Here by Matt De La Peña. The novel is told from the perspective of Miguel, a teenage boy who was sentenced to one year in a group home for committing a crime, that he won't tell the reader. Along with his sentence in the group home, Miguel was ordered to write down his thoughts in a journal for that year. One night, a fellow kid from the group home, Mong, invites Miguel to leave the home with him and run away from Mexico. Miguel thinks that it would be easier for his family if he just disappeared. So Miguel, Mong, and another group home boy, Rondell, run away without really a true plan to get to Mexico. Along the way they are faced with many challenges, but the worst one of all is figuring out where they belong in this world.

As a teenager this is a question you may ask yourself every single day.....WHERE DO I BELONG IN THIS WORLD? All three boys, Miguel, Mong, and Rondell, grew up on the rough sides of the track. And yes, all three boys made mistakes in their life that wound them up in this predicament. But none of this means that they should be forgotten in this world. They all want to be remembered whether its by their parents, or God, or just the world in general.

I would definitely recommend checking out the book We Were Here. The voice of Miguel is truly amazing and I think that any teen could relate to what he is saying. Even though you may have not grown up on the wrong side of the tracks or are running away from home, everybody feels alone in the world sometimes. This book will offer those readers a boost of hope.