The Last Summer of the Death Warriors
One is dying of cancer. The other's planning a murder.When Pancho arrives at St. Anthony's Home, he knows his time there will be short: If his plans succeed, he'll soon be arrested for the murder of his sister's killer. But then he's assigned to help D.Q., whose brain cancer has slowed neither...
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One is dying of cancer. The other's planning a murder.When Pancho arrives at St. Anthony's Home, he knows his time there will be short: If his plans succeed, he'll soon be arrested for the murder of his sister's killer. But then he's assigned to help D.Q., whose brain cancer has slowed neither his spirit nor his mouth. D.Q. tells Pancho all about his "Death Warrior's Manifesto," which will help him to live out his last days fully--ideally, he says, with the love of the beautiful Marisol. As Pancho tracks down his sister's murderer, he finds himself falling under the influence of D.Q. and Marisol, who is everything D.Q. said she would be;and he is inexorably drawn to a decision: to honor his sister and her death, or embrace the way of the Death Warrior and choose life.Nuanced in its characters and surprising in its plot developments--both soulful and funny--LAST SUMMER is a buddy novel of the highest kind: the story of a friendship that helps two young men become all they can be.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780545151344 (0545151341)
Publish date: January 1st 2012
Publisher: Scholastic Books
Pages no: 352
Edition language: English
This book is very well written and deals with some pretty adult things for a young adult novel. The characters are interesting and have a lot of depth and the plot is really good. The main characters are D.Q., a 17 year old boy fighting cancer, and Pancho, another 17 year old boy who was recently or...
Based on The Wit and Wisdom of Don Quixote de La Mancha, which I've never read, and therefor don't feel equipped to discuss.Two teen boys, dealing with overwhelming circumstances, look for a way to carry on.In contrast to The Marbury Lens, nothing very dramatic takes place. Pancho has lost his mothe...
This is one of the books I read to help with selecting next year's Gateway Award nominees. I did really enjoy it. Didn't think I would, again, like many of the titles on the list this year, it is not my normal type of book. But I really liked the story, and got involved with the characters. At f...
4.5 starsWhen Pancho's father and older sister both die a few months apart from one another, Pancho is sent to orphanage St. Anthony's. Pancho isn't interested in making friends with the other boys, intent on getting justice for his sister, who he believes was murdered. But oddball D.Q. is determine...
I respect the themes Francisco X. Stork explores in this novel, namely that this book is a modern day version of the film Boys Town, the story of Father Flanagan and those boys, and I especially liked the concept of the death warriors…feeling gratitude and loving life at all times and in all circums...