He Forgot to Say Goodbye

by Benjamin Alire Saenz
Lexile:  480
Genre:  Realistic Fiction

Ramiro Lopez and Jake Upthegrove live very different lives.  Ramiro  lives with his mom and brother in a working class Mexican-American neighborhood and attends the local high school.  Jake lives with his mom and stepfather in a rich, exclusive neighborhood and attends a magnet school for students planning to enter the medical profession.  The one thing they do have in common is the absence of their fathers in the their lives.  Ram and Jake both have different ways of dealing with this and it has shaped who they are as young men.  When their paths cross, they realize that despite their differences, they are going to need each other in order to face the future.