You Only Live Once, David Bravo

In California, an 11-year-old given the chance for a redo makes mistakes over--and over--again in a joyful novel with a pick-your-path vibe. For David Bravo, a transracial adoptee of Latinx descent, the first week of middle school is riddled with mistakes and disappointments: he gets food poisoning from hot-lunch spinach, accidentally hurts his closest friend during cross-country, and is bullied about his adoption during a presentation on family heritage. The solution to his do-over desires shows up at his back door: a magical hairless hound, Fea, who communicates telepathically and can send him into the body of his past self. For David, it's the perfect way to fix his relationship with his best friend; for Fea, it's another step toward finishing her job as a "non-corporeal timeline guide." As Fea and David endeavor to repair his timeline, it rapidly becomes apparent that fixing small mistakes is not what destiny has in store. Through turns both lighthearted and deeply moving, Oshiro (The Insiders) identifies how day-to-day choices ("Do I quickly make a decision before desks are occupied? Oh, absolutely not") can have long-term effects in this novel of self-discovery that reminds readers: "The future is unwritten.... That's always up to you." Ages 8-12. Agent: DongWon Song, Howard Morhaim Literary. (Sept.)

After a disastrous start to middle school, a talking dog offers David Bravo the chance to go back in time to fix the moment where it all went wrong-if only David could pinpoint where that moment was. Was it the school assignment about his culture and where he comes from? Or an unfortunate food poisoning incident that ruins his best friend's chance at making varsity cross-country? David keeps reliving certain moments up and down his time line, but instead of fixing things, he just keeps making them worse. Along the way, David must confront his feelings about his identity as a transracial adoptee (his mom is Japanese American and his dad is Mexican-Brazilian-American, his biological parents were Latinx, but the adoption was closed) and the true nature of his feelings for his best friend Antoine. Through his discussions with Fea, his "non-corporeal time line guide" (who, in addition to appearing as a dog, also shows up as a mosquito, giraffe, and several other animals to great comedic effect) and her backstory, he learns that sometimes it's not past decisions, but future ones that matter most. VERDICT A funny and unexpected twist on the time loop novel with moving and memorable results.

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