Have you Seen Luis Velez?

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Hyde, Catherine
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Hyde, Catherine	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Includes book club questions.
"Raymond Jaffe feels like he doesn't belong. Not with his mother's new family. Not as a weekend guest with his father and his father's wife. Not at school, where he's an outcast. After his best friend moves away, Raymond has only two real connections: to the feral cat he's tamed and to a blind ninety-two-year-old woman in his building who's introduced herself with a curious question: Have you seen Luis Velez? Mildred Gutermann, a German Jew who narrowly escaped the Holocaust, has been alone since her caretaker disappeared. She turns to Raymond for help, and as he tries to track Luis down, a deep and unexpected friendship blossoms between the two. Despondent at the loss of Luis, Mildred isolates herself further from a neighborhood devolving into bigotry and fear. Determined not to let her give up, Raymond helps her see that for every terrible act the world delivers, there is a mirror image of deep kindness, and Mildred helps Raymond see that there's hope if you have someone to hold on to."--Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Have You Seen Luis Velez? submitted by leighsprauer on August 15, 2023, 9:23am It's true that I wasn't expecting much of this book, so maybe I gave it a higher rating than if it hadn't exceeded my expectations. It's just a nice little book. If it were a movie, it would be the feel-good movie of the summer. Raymond, a lonely 16-year-old with a difficult home life, meets a neighbor in his apartment complex. Millie is in her 90s, is blind, and is desperate to find her former companion and assistant, Luis Velez, who suddenly stopped coming to help her with groceries. Raymond steps in to take over his tasks, and also attempts to find out what happened to Luis.
This seems like it should be aimed more at teenagers: the simple writing, the messages about kindness and prejudice, the teen angst all fit in better with a YA novel. (Although Hyde doesn't seem to have that deep understanding of teenagers that some YA authors do. Her descriptions of Raymond's inner conflicts and family life lack depth.) Still, it was a very quick, pleasant read, and I'm glad to have read it.