In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, middle schooler Lalo Lesperance is doing his best to adapt to virtual school and make social connections in his Florida apartment complex. Lalo struggles with severe short- and long-term memory loss, triggered by childhood trauma. He is also frustrated by others' inability to accept him as both Mexican and Haitian American. Diederich's descriptive writing stimulates all five senses as Lalo learns about Mexican culture from his neighbor Vivi's abuela and finds ways to manifest some of his key missing memories with a little help from a seemingly magical vintage radio and belief in traditional Mexican spiritualism. Lalo's character offers an important portrayal of Afro-Latin identity for contemporary readers. His story provides an example of how discrimination can come from outside and within the Hispanic/Latin community and how traumatizing that can be for a young person trying to form a sense of self. By framing Lalo's memory issues positively as a reason for "accommodations" in school, Diederich elevates and supports the character's unique life journey. Nicholas A. Brown

An 11-year-old struggles to connect with his past and survive the tumult of his present.From recollections of Papi, his late Haitian father, to what happened yesterday, Lalo Lespérance's memories feel "like secret notes in bottles floating in the ocean." Even when he finds one, it's "usually vague or written in code." Now that Covid has forced everyone online for school, his neighbor Vivi and her grandmother Alita welcome Lalo and his 17-year-old brother, Claudio, over to use the internet for online classes. Lalo, whose mom is Mexican American, loves to escape into Alita's stories about Mexico, especially ones about magic. One day, Vivi and Lalo spy a strange motor home in the parking lot of their apartment building. Vivi believes it belongs to a roba chico, or kidnapper. As they devise ways to catch him, Lalo discovers a mysterious old-fashioned radio in a storage closet. He becomes certain that the radio is helping him find his memories-but he isn't sure if remembering is good or bad. Diederich immerses readers in Lalo's confused emotional landscape: The uncertainties surrounding his identity, friendships, and place in his family push readers to explore these questions, both in terms of Lalo and themselves. The definition of memory and how integral it is to understanding oneself are heavy themes made accessible for younger audiences without sacrificing depth.A slow-burn of emotional exploration. (Fiction. 10-14)

An 11-year-old endeavors to build a machine to recover his lost memories in this thoughtful novel by Diederich (Diamond Park), set at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Lalo Lespérance has always had trouble remembering things, including details about his deceased father. When lockdowns begin, he’s stuck in his Fort Myers apartment complex with his older brother and forced to attend online school with neighbor kid Vivi. He spends his free time tinkering with his brother’s broken PlayStation, hoping to turn it into a memory machine and teams up with Vivi to investigate a mysterious motor home parked outside their building that’s rumored to kidnap children. His discovery of an old radio that seemingly helps him remember his past might be the answer to his woes—or the beginning of a whole new set of problems. Subplots starring neighbors and challenges within his apartment block provide insightful looks into one community’s experience navigating the pandemic. In spare, resonant prose, Diederich dives into the complexities of family, identity, and memory through Lalo, who feels it’s impossible to define who he is when he can’t remember the events—and people—that shaped him. Lalo is Mexican and Haitian American; the supporting cast is racially diverse. Ages 10–up. (Sept.)