Hector has always worked hard and minded his own business. He wants to be captain of his school’s chess team, go to college, and help his family make their way to a better life someday. Until Joey, whose older brother is the project’s drug dealer, tells Hector that he’s going to kill him—maybe not today, or tomorrow, but someday. From that day forward, Hector’s death hangs over his head every time he leaves the house. He spends his days trying to fade into the shadows. But when a fight between Joey’s brother Chavo and Hector’s brother Fili escalates, Hector is left with no choice but to take a stand. Will Hector lose himself to anger and the pursuit of revenge? With Francisco X. Stork’s trademark emotional honesty, On the Hook is an intense but ultimately hopeful novel about finding the courage to dream of a better future and breaking the cycle of violence to let forgiveness and love prevail.
Francisco X. Stork is the award-winning author of Marcelo in the Real World, The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, The Memory of Light, and Disappeared. Illegal, the sequel to Disappeared, received the In the Margins Book Award and the 2020 Best Young Adult Book from the Texas Institute of Letters. He lives near Boston with his wife. You can find him on the web at franciscostork.com and @StorkFrancisco.
Meg Medina won the 2019 Newberry Medal for Merci Suárez Changes Gears. Her other works include the picture books Mango, Abuela, and Me , Tía Isa Wants a Car, and the YA novels Burn Baby Burn, The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind, and the Pura Belpré Author Award-winning Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass. Her most recent book is Merci Suárez Can’t Dance. She lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her family.
Ages 14 and up
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