I've been to Cuba several times on vacation. Twenty-three years ago I even stayed a week with a poor Cuban family and that's when I first discovered how oppressed the people were under the communist rule of Fidel Castro. For this reason I was keen on reading The Boy Who Said No. I'm so glad I did because I loved it and consider it one of the best books I've read this year.

This is Frank Mederos' true life story as he told it to Patti Sheehy who wrote the book. And what a story it is! We meet Frank when he is a boy, spending time fishing with his wise grandfather. And through his eyes, we see how Cuba transforms in the 1960s through Castro's regime. Frank is a bright boy and he excels at school. This leads him to be chosen for various government programs meant to train the young ones under the communist regime. He is drafted in the army and promoted to Special Forces and becomes one of their star soldiers. However, his grandfather and parents have taught him to think for himself and he does not believe Castro's propaganda.

Frank falls in love with Magda and we experience the angst, beauty and torture of first-love. When Magda and her family leave for America he wants to escape to be with her. This part of the story was suspenseful and thrilling as Frank uses all his training, skills and wits to escape. The chances are slim as many Cubans died trying to cross to international waters, but Frank uses his leadership skills too. At 19 years-of-age, I was amazed at his intelligence, quick-thinking, goodness, courage and maturity that I fell in love with him too.

Patti Sheehy does a excellent job of bringing to life the Cuban culture and Frank's experiences as a teenager. There was never a boring moment in this book. I had tears several times as I read it, especially at the end. And I was happy to learn of the sequel Stalked that I promptly purchased as soon as I finished this book.

If you like reading books set in Latin American, with an incredible true-to-life protagonist, I strongly recommend this gem of a book.

I did not have a chance to read this book, but it is effecting my feedback rating. I am giving books 5 stars that I haven't read to improve my feedback rating. I am not recommending the book for my classroom or students since I have not read the book. There needs to be a better system of leaving feedback for books not read.

Telling the story of Frank Mederos personal escape from Cuba. It is an eyewitness account of why people feared the Communist regime of Castro. It is so good you might be able to finish it in one day.

I received a free copy from NetGalley years ago but just now got around to reading it. Due to current events, I think I took more from it by reading it now then I would have reading it then. Growing up in Cuba, forced into the military, wanting to escape with his fiancee. A little slow at times, but puts a very person spin on everything in the news right now as to why someone might risk everything to get to the USA.

Read a long time ago. Remember that it was a good story. Need to remove from my shelf.

While I was intrigued by this story of a young boy growing up in under Fidel Castro's regime, I didn't feel emotionally engaged with the characters. As a historical story, it was quite interesting, but as a novelization of real events, I felt it lacked a bit. The writing style seemed too journalistic to me, which worked for the descriptions of the schools/army/escape attempts, but definitely did not work when it came to the parts of the story that were about the relationships - with his family, girlfriend, friends, etc.

I was very disappointed with the ending, which was left wide open for the sequel. I feel like the story could have been condensed into one book rather than drawn out as it is into two.

I ended up not interested enough in the characters or the story to read book 2. However, I do admire both the author and the person whose life the story is based on for sharing this inspirational story from a very difficult time in history.