Brownstone
Samuel Teer
Illustrated by Mar Julia
Versify
Published June 11, 2024

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About Brownstone

An exciting teen coming-of-age epic from author Samuel Teer and debut graphic novel artist Mar Julia, Brownstone is a vivid, sweeping, ultimately hopeful story about navigating your heritage even when you feel like you don’t quite fit in.

Almudena has always wondered about the dad she never met.

Now, with her white mother headed on a once-in-a-lifetime trip without her, she’s left alone with her Guatemalan father for an entire summer. Xavier seems happy to see her, but he expects her to live in (and help fix up) his old, broken-down brownstone. And all along, she must navigate the language barrier of his rapid-fire Spanish—which she doesn’t speak.

As Almudena tries to adjust to this new reality, she gets to know the residents of Xavier’s Latin American neighborhood. Each member of the community has their own joys and heartbreaks as well as their own strong opinions on how this young Latina should talk, dress, and behave. Some can’t understand why she doesn’t know where she comes from. Others think she’s “not brown enough” to fit in.

But time is running out for Almudena and Xavier to get to know each other, and the key to their connection may ultimately lie in bringing all these different elements together. Fixing a broken building is one thing, but turning these stubborn individuals into a found family might take more than this one summer.

My Review

The graphic novel format of this story really worked in terms of making Almudena’s experience at her dad’s house really immersive. It was so easy to imagine the scenes playing out in my head. I liked seeing the ways the characters reacted to her and some of the things that she might not have noticed herself.

At the beginning, Almudena doesn’t know anything about her Guatemalan heritage, and she doesn’t speak Spanish. This makes connecting with her dad even more challenging. The language barrier really highlighted the estrangement between Almudena and her dad, too. As she gets to know him, her opinion about him changes, and she begins to find ways to connect with other people in the community as well.

One of my favorite relationships was between Almudena and the shopkeeper who lives alone. I liked the friendship they developed and how that connection ultimately impacts the whole neighborhood.

If you like stories about family connections and exploring cultural heritage, definitely put Brownstone on your reading list!

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong language used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Almudena realizes her dad is in a romantic relationship and has some feelings about it.

Spiritual Content
Almudena’s dad shows her his altar, where he prays according to his own ideas about faith, pulling elements from his culture and Christianity.

Violent Content
Almudena gets lost in the city at one point. At another point, she goes out alone and feels threatened or unsafe in a couple of situations.

Drug Content
One teen character smokes.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I borrowed a copy of this book from my local library. All opinions are my own.