Love in English

by Maria E. Andreu

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

This refreshing take on a high school love story follows 16-year-old Ana, who has recently immigrated from Argentina to New Jersey, as she navigates friendship, family, crushes, and adapting to a new home, all while dealing with a significant language barrier. Ana’s story is compelling and relatable, with excerpts of her poetry perfectly placed throughout to give perspective into her journey of learning the linguistic oddities of English as a non-native speaker.

A fresh, breakout YA novel that is layered with themes of immigration, cultural identity, and finding your voice in any language. 

Sixteen-year-old Ana is a poet and a lover of language. Except that since she moved to New Jersey from Argentina, she can barely find the words to express how she feels.

At first Ana just wants to return home. Then she meets Harrison, the very cute, very American boy in her math class, and discovers the universal language of racing hearts. But when she begins spending time with Neo, the Greek Cypriot boy from ESL, Ana wonders how figuring out what her heart wants can be even more confusing than the grammar they’re both trying to master. After all, the rules of English may be confounding, but there are no rules when it comes to love.

With playful and poetic breakouts exploring the idiosyncrasies of the English language, Love in English is witty and effervescent, while telling a beautifully observed story about what it means to become “American.” 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062996510
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	02/02/2021
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	108,744
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Maria E. Andreu is an Argentinian American author whose work has appeared in Teen Vogue, Newsweek, the Washington Post, and the Newark Star Ledger. Her debut young adult novel, The Secret Side of Empty, inspired by her experiences as an undocumented immigrant and a speaker of English as a second language, is a Junior Library Guild Selection, a National Indie Excellence Book Award winner, and an International Latino Book Awards finalist. Find her online at www.mariaeandreu.com.

Editorial Reviews

01/04/2021

The teen love triangle at the center of this warm and humorous novel by Andreu (The Secret Side of Empty) is threaded with experiences that accompany acclimation to a new school and country. When 16-year-old narrator Ana moves with her family from Argentina to a New Jersey suburb, English feels like a “troll that won’t let me do anything until I pay him a price I can’t cover,” despite the fact that she studied the language growing up. The transition results in awkward moments for the teen—as when she announces in the cafeteria “I like the... buns? And sausage?”—but she soon befriends Altagracia, a gay Dominican American girl with influencer aspirations; Neo, a sweet kid from Greece; and Harrison, a friendly, WASPy local in need of math tutoring. Refreshingly, Ana is torn between two guys who are both fundamentally kind, though the school has its share of build-the-wall bullies. But as a budding poet (her journals punctuate the chapters), Ana’s real love affair is with language itself. Andreu captures Ana’s cultural and linguistic roller coaster with eloquence and precision, as Ana wonders “if learning one language doesn’t sometimes mean forgetting a little bit of another,” a process described as bittersweetly as coming-of-age itself. Ages 14–up. Agency: Alloy Entertainment. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Poems that explore the quirks, idioms, and inconsistencies of English blossom throughout the narrative, adding dimension to Ana's character. As she learns to navigate a new language, she's also navigating a new culture, reconciling her new way of life with her old family ways and working toward a compromise with her strict parents. Andreu bases Ana's story on her own experiences as an immigrant teen, and she depicts Ana with authenticity and grace.

Booklist

★ 12/01/2020

Gr 9 Up—When 16-year-old Ana moves from Argentina to New Jersey, she works hard to learn English and fit in at her new high school. No matter how much effort she puts into her studies, though, she is still caught in moments of confusion, as teachers and classmates talk rapidly and sprinkle their speech with American idioms. When she meets Harrison, a handsome, blonde-haired boy in her math class, Ana begins to come out of her shell, making more of an effort to communicate. She and her new Spanish-speaking friend, Altagracia, devise a plan, and Ana happily starts worrying about the things typical to high school juniors. As Ana makes progress with English and expresses herself through her poetry, she develops a close friendship with Neo, a Greek Cypriot boy from her ESL class, who enlists her to watch 1980s movies and take trips to New York City. Just when Ana feels she is settling into life in her new country, she is forced to reevaluate her priorities. Andreu creates a realistic portrait of the obstacles facing English language learners in the United States. By cleverly blocking out portions of text, she mimics what language sounds like to the ears of someone who has not yet achieved fluency. Her characters are nuanced and their interactions endearing. Teenagers and adults alike will gain necessary perspective from reading this accessible story about a topic that affects millions. VERDICT An engaging novel about language, culture, and empathy. Highly recommended for all libraries.—Karin Greenberg, Manhasset H.S., NY

School Library Journal

2020-11-24
A story about immigration, language, and finding one’s voice.

Sixteen-year-old Ana and her mom have recently emigrated from Argentina to New Jersey to reunite with Ana’s father after three long years apart. As she starts her junior year of high school, Ana grapples with new, fraught relationship dynamics with her dad and his insistence that they speak only English at home as well as with the heartbreaking move away from family and friends to a new country while possessing only a basic level of English. But as she settles in and meets new people at school, including Spanish-speaking Altagracia, a fabulous Instagram influencer; cute all-American Harrison; and Neo from ESL class, a friendly Greek Cypriot, Ana starts to believe that everything may well turn out fine. Ana is a writer of poetry and lover of words, and the book features some of her quirky, thought-provoking poems about learning the ins and outs of the English language. The novel, focusing on Ana’s experience as a documented immigrant, effectively explores the character’s struggle to navigate unlike cultures and languages while she learns to communicate in English, discovers different facets of herself, falls a bit in love, and ultimately finds her footing—and her voice—in the U.S. Ana is White and Argentinian, and Altagracia is a Latinx lesbian.

A wholesome immigration story with a healthy dose of romance on the side. (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews

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