Abuela, Don't Forget Me

A beautiful tribute to the one person in his life that accepted him for who he was and would become. The only way Rex can escape the abuse of his mother, Steph father and father is by staying with his Abuela. As the years go by, she may be losing a bit of herself, however she still knows how important and how much she loves her grandson. This novel in verse tells the story of one woman who gives so much of her heart, without ever expecting anything in retutn. This was an amazing follow up to Rex’s two previous books, Punching Bag and Free Lunch.

Rex Ogle is one of my favorite authors and he is just as beloved by my students. Ogle, author of Free Lunch and Punching Bag, is back with a third memoir, this time in verse. Abuela, Don’t Forget Me is his love letter to his grandmother, the one person in his childhood that he could alway depend on and who was always there for him. Rex’s childhood was tough; his mother and stepfather were violent and abusive, there was never enough money or food, and he didn’t have much of a relationship with his father. But he did have his grandmother, who was always there for Rex, helping, supporting, and encouraging him.

I have loved all three of Ogle’s memoirs and I cannot even begin to tell you how much my students adore his work. I have had some of the best conversations with students about Free Lunch and Punching Bag. Ogle manages to make his dysfunctional family relatable while also giving readers hope that things will be okay in the future. I loved Abuela, Don’t Forget Me just as much as his first two memoirs and cannot wait to share this title with my students!

Here we follow Rex again as he shows us his life with and around his Abuela growing up. Abuala, the one source of unconditional love, help, and support for Rex from an early age. The person who is home for him and he knows he can go to for anything. We see more of his relationship with his mom and how Abuela's actions center around reacting to his mother's actions toward him and her. We see a woman determined to find ways to help her grandson who she knows her daughter is not doing her best for. We see Rex flourish under his Abuela's wings and grow to be the man he is, no thanks to his mother. A heart wrenching and truly necessary read for anyone.

A beautiful memoir, written in verse, detailing the love that the author has for his grandmother and the integral role she plays in his life.

It provides so much cultural representation, with consideration of the Hispanic and LGBTQ communities. There is a moral to this story, and could be a really interesting tool to develop empathy in young people.

Rex Ogle wrote a masterpiece. I am relatively speechless. This book made me feel at home and made me miss my own abuela and all of her complexities. This book is home. I found parts of myself in these pages that I had long forgotten. What a gift.

Thank you Rex. Your abuela would be proud.

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

A heart wrenching and necessary love letter. It is a one sitting read. Full of insights and love for the author's abuela (grandmother). I'm certain that many will take the idea and also pen letters of love to their loved ones that are suffering from Alzheimer's or those who are no longer on Earth. Beautiful and heart wrenching.

A gripping, at times devastating, but overwhelmingly inspiring memoir, written in verse, that everyone should read about the impact one person - Rex’s abuela - can have on someone, when their intentions are genuine and from the heart, no matter how difficult and unfortunate their circumstances may be.

Over the thousands of books I read, I can count on one hand the times I've actively cried over a book. This is one of them. The final page pulled up everything from the last two books he's written about his lived experiences and then he writes what amounts to a love letter to his grandmother, who is slowly starting to forget him but was stoically there for him throughout every trauma of his existence, for better and worse, in good times and bad, patiently waiting out her completely unstable daughter to provide Rex (and then also Ford when he came along) with access to activities, experiences, and things that he needed to be hopeful he could come through it.

This verse novel is an eloquent family story about overcoming and working through trauma and hardship. It's about how helping others in turn helps us and shines brighter when it's the love and support of a grandmother. It hits differently that his other two books because it takes a different perspective-- one of a doting grandson who can't say thank you enough other than to write a book for and about the one person who kept stability in his tumultuous life.

The book is segmented but revisits his life chronologically but inserts his grandmother more specifically in the experiences where she might not have been fully-realized in his first two.

Thank you Rex Ogle for your story, your vulnerability, your way with words.