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190th out of 199 books
—
115 voters
He Forgot to Say Goodbye
"I mean, it's not as if I want a father. I have a father. It's just that I don't know who he is or where he is. But I have one."
Ramiro Lopez and Jake Upthegrove don't appear to have much in common. Ram lives in the Mexican-American working-class barrio of El Paso called "Dizzy Land." His brother is sinking into a world of drugs, wreaking havoc in their household. Jake is a...more
Ramiro Lopez and Jake Upthegrove don't appear to have much in common. Ram lives in the Mexican-American working-class barrio of El Paso called "Dizzy Land." His brother is sinking into a world of drugs, wreaking havoc in their household. Jake is a...more
Hardcover, 321 pages
Published
June 17th 2008
by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
(first published June 17th 1998)
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i snagged this book before we put it out on our new ya shelf. i loved Sammy & Juliana in Hollywood. it was a beautiful book. and this is right up there with it. his writing is so real and doesn't really hide from anything. he's very stylistic. he is "a cool cat." i also love reading bits of culture that aren't my own. kids could identify with this book, with the feelings of loneliness and perseverance they have to eventually come to. it was an amazing book. really "effen" beautiful, it "comp...more
Ramiro Lopez and Jake Upthegrove are the same age and attend school in adjacent buildings, but other than that, they don’t have much in common. So why do the two become cautious friends? Well, they both think almost everything that goes wrong in their lives has to do with their absent fathers.
This was an amazing and moving book. It definitely reads more on the “adult” end of “young adult” and it would take a dedicated reader. There isn’t a lot of action to the story, but it’s beautifully told. T...more
This was an amazing and moving book. It definitely reads more on the “adult” end of “young adult” and it would take a dedicated reader. There isn’t a lot of action to the story, but it’s beautifully told. T...more
Jake Upthegrove and Ramiro Lopez grew up without their fathers. They come from different backgrounds, but bond over the same adolescent related angst. Jake’s life is characterized by Anglo middle class problems, while Ramiro faces tougher challenges that accompany poverty and being a minority.
Jake has issues with his mother, and he enjoys pushing her buttons. Jake’s mom, “Sally”, as he calls her, isn’t portrayed as a very strong individual. She turns back when her housekeeper approaches her abou...more
Jake has issues with his mother, and he enjoys pushing her buttons. Jake’s mom, “Sally”, as he calls her, isn’t portrayed as a very strong individual. She turns back when her housekeeper approaches her abou...more
This story was very interesting for me. It depicted the lives of two boys, Ramiro Lopez and Jake Upthegrove, who learn how to grow up without a father. At first, it seems that neither no how to cope with this situation. They feel that their lives are horrible because their father's never wanted them. They felt that being abandoned was the worst thing possible. With the help of their friends and each other, they learn that life goes on. It's not always easy to keep on living, but they understand...more
He Forgot To Say Goodbye is the story of Jake Upthegrove and Ramiro Lopez, two boys from different sides of El Paso who have one thing in common: both of their fathers walked out on them early in life.
I “effen” loved this novel. It is one of my favorite novels that has been required so far for my Young Adult Materials class. The novel alternates between Ram and Jake’s points of view, something which I usually don’t like novels to do, but I thought that Saenz was able to do this very skillfully....more
He Forgot to Say Goodbye is a story of Jake and Ram, two teenagers with seemingly different lives who have one thing in common- their fathers left them. The story is told through monologues that,at times, get repetitive when Saenz would recall describe the same scene twice through each characters' point of view. I thought the characters were too contrived, especially Jake. The language the characters used was forced- "effen", "cool cat", "dig it", and worst of all "destroy." Unfortunately, the o...more
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Ramiro Lopez and Jake Upthegrove don't appear to have much in common. Ram lives in the Mexican-American working-class barrio of El Paso called "Dizzy Land." His brother is sinking into a world of drugs.Jake is a rich West Side white boy who has developed a problem managing his anger. An only child, he is a misfit in his mother's shallow and materialistic world. But Ram and Jake do have one thing in common: They are lost boys who have never met their fathers. This sad fact has left both of them u...more
At last, I'm done... Due to schoolwork I don't have a specific time for reading but thankfully for almost three weeks I'd finished it...
The book will teach you something about life and family especially if you come from a broken one. Your life does not stop if you did not get what you expected, if you thought that you're the only one whose not perfect, if you think that the world is better without you...
One thing I learned is that if one of your parents left you, you'll never hate them, you'...more
The book will teach you something about life and family especially if you come from a broken one. Your life does not stop if you did not get what you expected, if you thought that you're the only one whose not perfect, if you think that the world is better without you...
One thing I learned is that if one of your parents left you, you'll never hate them, you'...more
He Forgot to Say Goodbye is a contemporary novel about friendship, relationships and self-discovery.
Ramiro Lopez lives in El Paso, Texas. He goes to a pre-med magnet high school. But it’s not the sort of school where nice white rich kids go. They go to the school next door. Jake Upthegrove is one of the nice rich kids but he’s anything but happy.
I read this book because I really enjoyed another book by the author - Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. They share many similar...more
Ramiro Lopez lives in El Paso, Texas. He goes to a pre-med magnet high school. But it’s not the sort of school where nice white rich kids go. They go to the school next door. Jake Upthegrove is one of the nice rich kids but he’s anything but happy.
I read this book because I really enjoyed another book by the author - Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. They share many similar...more
The author of Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood tells the story of Ram, a Mexican American teen, and Jake, a student in an honors school, who meet and form a surprising friendship. Both boys are fatherless and feel incomplete.
Mar 23, 2013
Manda
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
best-of-best,
o-the-writing-like-poetry,
philosopher-creator-storyteller,
beautiful-story,
break-your-heart-kind-of-story,
family-ties,
fave-protagonists,
i-feel-you-bro,
male-pov,
oh-god-nooo-moment,
reality-earnest-yet-unpretty,
ridiculous-happiness-and-sadness,
rom-lite,
smells-like-teen-spirit,
snark-syndrome,
words-for-you-truths-for-me
While this book may not be as good as Sáenz's more recent works Last Night I Sang to the Monster and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, it's still really good, beautifully written and I always love his protagonists. There's what I would describe as poetic honesty to the way that this man writes, and I find myself wanting to copy down paragraphs of ideas, words and emotions that are just captured so beautifully.
Two boys with radically different backgrounds and family have one very important fact in common...their fathers left at an early age. He Forgot to Say Goodbye is the story of the friendship that evolves from empathy and sorrow. Jake, a rich, "OH-WOW-WEST-END" kid and Ram, a resident of "DIZZY LAND" meet at the Circle K when Jake comes to buy cigarettes. Gradually, they seem to connect through common interests and eventually find out that both have been left by uncaring fathers.
A life-long frien...more
A life-long frien...more
this book would have had a higher rating if only the author did not over-use phrases and words like "effen", "dig", and the worst, "destroy". makes me want to hurl the book every time!
one other thing that irked me was how even though there were quite a few characters in the book, every one of them feels.. similar. i dont quite feel the uniqueness of the characters.
but it was a pretty funny book. i laughed out loud a few times, and towards the end, i thought what a good (though predictable) endin...more
one other thing that irked me was how even though there were quite a few characters in the book, every one of them feels.. similar. i dont quite feel the uniqueness of the characters.
but it was a pretty funny book. i laughed out loud a few times, and towards the end, i thought what a good (though predictable) endin...more
We don't get to choose our families. But we can choose how we relate to our relatives. Jake has a hard time relating to his mother and step-father and he has no relationship with his father. Ramiro has a great relationship with his mother, but his relationship with his brother is strained and he wishes he knew more about his father. Saenz does a fabulous job of telling the boys' stories in alternating, first person voices. I'm glad to see another strong entry from a Latino author for teens.
Two boys from different sides of El Paso, Texas are both growing up without their fathers, Ramiro Lopez from Dizzyland, the poor Latino part of town, and Jacob Upthegrove from the Oh Wow Westside, the wealthy side of town. In alternating, often very short chapters, Ram and Jake describe their lives and how they slowly become friends. Each boy is dealing with family issues although in comparison to Ram, Jake’s seem superficial. Ram’s brother is in the hospital after overdosing on drugs and is bra...more
Reviewed by hoopsielv for TeensReadToo.com
This a novel about two young men. They seem to be opposites in many ways, yet they have in common the fact that they have never known their fathers.
Jake has had a very privileged upbringing. He really couldn't ask for more. Well, except for a father. His mom is remarried and her job is to make sure that she knows everything that's going on with Jake. It's to the point where it drives him crazy and they are constantly battling each other.
Ramiro has been...more
This a novel about two young men. They seem to be opposites in many ways, yet they have in common the fact that they have never known their fathers.
Jake has had a very privileged upbringing. He really couldn't ask for more. Well, except for a father. His mom is remarried and her job is to make sure that she knows everything that's going on with Jake. It's to the point where it drives him crazy and they are constantly battling each other.
Ramiro has been...more
This book is easily one of my favorite YA novels ever. I was shocked by how awesome it was because I could not get into Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood yet this was a really amazing read. The best thing about the writing was the voice. Benjamin Alire Saenz told a fantastic story through the eyes of two truly likable strangers whose lives come together in a strange way. The characters' honest but witty storytelling is what carries the whole plot and made this such a page-turner for me.
The charac...more
The charac...more
Separate stories are told from the point of view of two different boys. Jason and Ram. Both of them tell their stories and explain their lives as they stuggle with the fact that their father's abandoned each of the them when they were very young. Jason comes from a very well-to-do family, and Ram from a working class family. They both go to different high schools, but eventually meet. While they think their lives are so different, they have many things in common.
Jul 12, 2010
Elizabeth
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
teen boys, teens who growing up in single parent households, reluctant readers
Shelves:
teen
After reading Last Night I Sang to the Monster, I decided to read the other two books Benjamin Alire Saenz has written for young adults beginning with this one. He Forgot to Say Goodbye will not disappoint, it also reflects Saenz poetic ability to connect the reader with the internal struggles of the teen characters. In this case, Jake Upthegrove and Ramiro Lopez who must both come to terms with fathers who left them as children in unexpected ways. While the main story focuses on male characters...more
This book had potential, but left me disappointed with an ending that I feel is unrealistic, shallow, and typical of mainstream popular fiction. The reviews on the book's back cover are overly gushy. I cannot believe that readers are falling into the trap that somehow romantic love and an underdeveloped friendship solves deep-seated anger issues surrounding fathers not being part of youths' lives.
M This book has a lot of strikes against it: contrived situations, unrealistically paranoid portrayal of drugs, and adult characters that are either thinly terrible or transparent saints. Yet, it charmed me and I found myself wanting to keep reading and reach the joyous ending that I saw coming miles away. Good for those looking for books about abandonment by fathers, also, one of the two main characters is a Mexican-American.
Jan 17, 2013
Molly
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Who has lost a sibling or who doesn't know a family member
The book was about Ram who doesn't know who is father now where he is. His brother is a typical regular teenager, who does drugs. One night Tito, didn't come home and his mother was worried sick. Ram's friend Lalo knew where Tito is, he is at Jeremy's house lying on the floor. Come to find out they were doing herion. Jeremy and Tito didn't make it.
Two different boys, Ram and Jake, from different parts of El Paso, find themselves becoming real friends.
The tone and language of this book really struck a chord with me, and with all the daddy issues involved, I found myself near tears a couple of times. This is a great read with an excellent perspective on teen life.
Flat out 4 stars
The tone and language of this book really struck a chord with me, and with all the daddy issues involved, I found myself near tears a couple of times. This is a great read with an excellent perspective on teen life.
Flat out 4 stars
A truly first rate YA novel, and that it's set in El Paso is just a bonus for me. Heart wrenching look at family dynamics, at the pain parents cause in leaving their kids, at the power of friendship, at the way good parents enrich their kids without "spoiling" them. Fine!
Ram Lopez and Jake Upthegrove cant be more different. Jake is rich, and lives on the rich West Side of town. Ram lives in the barrio in El Paso, that everyone calls "Dizzy Land". But the one thing that they have in common is, their Dads left. As Jake and Ram delv into each others worlds, they discover they have more than one thing in common.
I really liked the fast pace reading in this book. The way Ben Saenz wrote out these to amazing characters of Jake and Ram, makes you feel for them. With Ja...more
I really liked the fast pace reading in this book. The way Ben Saenz wrote out these to amazing characters of Jake and Ram, makes you feel for them. With Ja...more
When I was only on chapter two (chapter one was long, though!) I thought I wasn't going to like the book. But I did. It made me cry. So if you have stopped halfway, pick it up and keep going!
It took me well over half of this book to really get into it--in fact, I actually thought about stopping around page 100. Once Ram and Jake's stories really start to overlap, the story finally picks up. I liked the ending a lot.
Oct 27, 2011
Michelle White
added it
This book is so good. It would be good to use because some students don't have fathers and this will let them know they are not alone. I got it from the IUS Library.
This was a good book. Maybe it was a great book. But I just couldn't get into it. The different voices made it confusing. I struggled through finishing it but it was a good book.
Aug 24, 2009
Katrina
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Mature Teen Boys Dealing with Abandonment
While there is no doubt that Saenz is quite the poet, this book didn't do much for me. The book is mostly internal monologs which would have been fine if the characters weren't so repetitive and uncaring (ok, that was mostly Jake but it was annoying). I also found a lot of the situations the boys got into contrived and the adult characters are either thinly terrible or transparent saints. Though not a book for me, I can see this being good for those looking for books about abandonment by fathers...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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| when ramiro goes to school | 1 | 7 | Jun 24, 2009 02:56pm |
Benjamin Alire Sáenz (born 16 August 1954) is an award-winning American poet, novelist and writer of children's books.
He was born at Old Picacho, New Mexico, the fourth of seven children, and was raised on a small farm near Mesilla, New Mexico. He graduated from Las Cruces High School in 1972. That fall, he entered St. Thomas Seminary in Denver, Colorado where he received a B.A. degree in Humaniti...more
More about Benjamin Alire Sáenz...
He was born at Old Picacho, New Mexico, the fourth of seven children, and was raised on a small farm near Mesilla, New Mexico. He graduated from Las Cruces High School in 1972. That fall, he entered St. Thomas Seminary in Denver, Colorado where he received a B.A. degree in Humaniti...more
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“Some boys... Are perfect shits. & other boys are very, very beautiful.”
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“The problem with parents is that they're adults.”
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