WOW Reads: S2, E1 - TRAP Reads The Broke Hearts by Matt Mendez

Join the Worlds of Words Center Teen Reading Ambassadors (TRAP) as we discuss The Broke Hearts by Matt Mendez.

This episode gets personal as we elaborate on Matt's suggestion that we never stop becoming something.

It was reported in this episode that the book launch had just under 30 attendees, but it was actually over 30 attendees. This matters because the Middle School Reading Ambassadors challenged the teens to see who could get more people to their author event. Did they? Didn't they? That part hasn't been reported.

This podcast was recorded in the Digital Innovation and Learning Lab (DIALL) in the UArizona College of Education with assistance from the UA COE Tech Team.

Producer/Host: Rebecca Ballenger, Worlds of Words Center Associate Director
Audio Engineer: Liam Arias, Student Employee and Radio, TV, Film Major
Coordinator: Vianey Torres, Student Employee and Nursing Major

Reading Ambassador Advisers:
Samantha Montes, Graduate Assistant
Katherine Connover, Retired Educator

For more information on the WOW Teen Reading Ambassadors (TRAP), visit wowlit.org.

For more information about Matt Mendez and his process writing The Broke Hearts, visit wowlit.org.

We Can Promote Global Literature Together!

The Worlds of Words Reading Ambassador program is completely free for participants who receive a book for themselves and a book to share with their school librarian, ELA/English teacher, or other school entity. If you would like to support this program, please make a gift on-line through the University of Arizona Foundation.

Thank you for listening and keep reading!

Transcript

Welcome to WOW Reads, a podcast of the Worlds of Words Center of Global Literacies and Literatures. Worlds of Words is an international network of people who share the vision of bringing books and children together, thereby opening windows on the world. We encourage thoughtful dialogue around global literature so that children can reflect on their own cultural experiences and connect to the experiences of children across the globe.

Today, we're speaking to the Teen Reading Ambassadors. Worlds of Words Teen Reading Ambassador Initiative offers high school students a college experience within the University of Arizona College of Education that focuses on books for teens. Ambassadors learn about young adult literature under the direction of faculty and staff with expertise in children's literature, education, library science, and marketing.

We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of indigenous peoples. Today, Arizona is home to 22 federally recognized tribes, with Tucson being home to the O’Odham and the  Yaqui. Committed to diversity and inclusion, the University strives to build relationships with sovereign Native nations and indigenous communities through education offerings, partnerships, and community service.

 Our book we're talking about today, The Broke Hearts, is a companionship book to a previous book written, Barely Missing Everything. And it follows the story of J. D. and Daniel or Danny and their life after Juan has unfortunately passed away and just what they're trying to do to get their life together and the choices they make throughout it. Like his characters, Matt Mendez grew up in El Paso, Texas. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Missing Everything, his debut novel which was called “searing” by Publishers Weekly, and which was the Kirkus Best Book of the Year, a short story collection, The Twitching Heart, a military veteran, he now lives in Tucson, Arizona.

Well, I'm really excited that we're starting season two of WOW Reads and this is our first episode of the season. Let's start by introducing ourselves. I'm Rebecca Ballenger. I'm the Associate Director of Worlds of Words in the University of Arizona College of Education. I'm Quin. I'm Samantha, and I'm a graduate student here at the University of Arizona and Rebecca's partner in crime.

I'm Lily. I'm Rene. I'm Averi. So today we got to meet Matt Mendez. And in fact, we got to host the launch of his book, The Broke Hearts. Will one of you please tell us a little bit about what that event was like? So that event, there were a lot of people almost 30, which beats, Yeah.

It was a good crowd. It was a good crowd. And Matt Mendez, we, he answered our questions and then he read an excerpt of The Broke Hearts. What did you guys think of Matt? I thought he had a lot of really interesting stuff to say. When I was talking to him while he was getting my book signed, I was asking him a bit about what it was, like, what it was like growing up and trying to figure out your place in the world.

And one of the things he said, even during the conversation that we had, was that over time, you kind of grow into the person that you want to be. You never stop becoming something. And that's a journey in itself. It's, it's your life and you don't have to stop at any set moment. Because people aren't static characters.

One of the things that I found fascinating about Matt Mendez is that the way he talked about his characters and his life, it seemed like a lot of his characters contained a sliver of him. And that seems to be common for many of the authors that we have met. I'll throw in a pro for him. He is very good at taking a simple yes or no question and really talking about it and elaborating on it, which is a great thing when you're answering questions.

Like when we asked him about the coyote, instead of just saying like a simple, while I see coyotes, he told us how he like, like one of the characters in the book, he went running and how sometimes coyotes would run near him. And so, that’s why he included a coyote running with, uh, JD in the book. So for context, there is a coyote on the cover of The Broke Hearts, and there is a coyote, as Averi mentioned, that shows up periodically throughout the novel.

So, what were the ways in which this book connected to each of you? I really connected one of the, the father Sarge, one of the characters, to my own dad. Because Sarge is a character who, he doesn't talk much about his life, but he wants the best for his kid. And he wants to teach his kid something, and he wants him to know, and he does love his child.

My dad's kinda like that, in a way. He... He loves me, but also wants to push me enough to where I can succeed in life. And I think that's something that all parents ultimately want for their kids. Um, I really connected, I guess, to just the empathy, because there's a scene later in the book where the sarge comes in contact with an old childhood enemy.

And I guess I just really connected with the empathy that he has for the enemy and helping him rather than just laughing and walking away. I love that scene. Yeah, that was a good one. For me personally, a lot of my family is Pretty identical to a lot of them in here, just coming from the background I do come from.

A lot of it's just really recognizable, and a lot of it's just really down to earth for me. And the family's just a very accurate representation of what could be in the world. I related a lot to JD and Danny's friendship, especially at the beginning, because, um, I've drifted apart from a lot of my friends, going from talking to them basically every day to just texting them.

Once every now and then to say, like, hi, and then waiting a couple days for them to respond, and half the time they never do. So, one of the reasons why Matt wrote this book, or thinks maybe teens would be interested in this book, because it does happen after high school, so it's maybe a new adult novel, is because, um, it might be valuable to, a teen to know what might be next, what might happen next.

So that's kind of what this story is. Do you guys think about what might happen next? I guess for me, it's just really deciding what degree I want to pursue and going to college. And yeah, I don't have much of a plan after that. There are a couple of, because one of my interests is engineering. There is an engineering company that I hope to join if I do follow that interest.

So, as Matt said, we don't really have a plan for adult life. I have a little figured out what I want to do after. I know I want to go to college and get a degree in library science, but And work at, and become like, a librarian, but I don't know where exactly I'd want to do that, or like, what position of librarian I'd want to take.

Like, would I want to be a children's librarian? Would I want to work at like a school library? I don't really know yet. One of the things that counselors are always asking students at my school is, What do you want to do after high school? You need to know this so that way you have somewhere to go, and you don't, End up doing nothing and all of your, all of your hard work up till now is for nothing.

You need, you need to have an idea of what you want. And so there are all these college visits for seniors and meetings with even freshmen. Just, oh, what are you interested in? And they encourage joining clubs so we get an idea of this. But, I, I don't. Even after all this, I still don't know what I want to do.

I've tried multiple things, but one of the things that, um, Matt Mendez said that really struck with me was to just slowly get more, like, just become more acquainted with things that you normally wouldn't look into and see what you, how you feel about those. Like, if you like it. Then delve into it further.

If you don't, then you don't have to continue doing it. Nobody's telling you what you have to do with your life. For me, I have a pretty concrete, it's either option A or option B, which I will not go into, because I will be here for a few hours talking about it. So, in all honesty, it really just goes down to my next few years on which of those two I feel like going to, because they're both wildly different, some way, some how.

So. Is there a possibility you could do both? Yes but that's both of them take a considerable amount of time. One's a lawyer and one is running my parents business Either or I'm equally interested in and I feel like a lawyer is already a time grab and I'm not sure how I'm gonna run Something on top of that, but you never know what could happen So Rene, you asked Matt about the title of this book which I think sort of does connect to this question about what's next.

Do you want to cover that ground again? I would love to. So, The Broke Hearts, the title of this lovely book. I'm sure you are all wondering, why is it not The Broken Hearts? The same question we all had, and the same question that was asked. Our personal theories was maybe it's symbolizing that. You know, they, they don't have the best grammar and stuff like that.

Maybe it's symbolizing that they are broke. They're not on the richer side. Maybe it's symbolizing that there's many. His personal answer was pretty much confirming all of those. He truly thought that this was just a more eye catcher and this was just more relatable and this was just a better path to go down for the book.

And so, what path do you take when your best friend dies and your heart is broke? I'd assume the broken one, but... Well, we know what it is for JD, and we know what it is for Danny, right?

Any last thoughts about this book? Um, this one's kind of random, but the entire time he was talking about, like, how the reason he chose a coyote was because he kept seeing coyotes, I was just thinking about, like, what the animal would be if he, like, lived in different places, and then all I could imagine was him living on a beach and him putting it as a crab because he, like, Mostly because I like crabs, so I think about them a lot, so, um, I just kept imagining it as a crab instead of a coyote, like, if he lived at a beach and he saw crabs instead.

Very random thought, but I love that Averi because in our lit discussion We talked about connectedness and making connections, and I am so tickled that that's your connection On that note, I'm sure as all of us can confirm, and I'll just throw it out there, we were all personally recommending this book and it really was lovely.

It was a great down to earth book something any teenager should really read if they're a little curious about what they think they're gonna do little curious on how they think the world's gonna be and just overall down to earth, grounded, a very realistic book that I think we can all recommend. Well, thanks to Matt Mendez.

Thanks to our Teen Reading Ambassadors. Thanks to Pine Reads Review who helped us host the book launch for The Broke Hearts. Thanks to Liam, our sound engineer and podcast editor. Thanks to Vianey Torres who keeps us all together in this program. Thanks also to the Digital Innovation and Learning Lab in the University of Arizona College of Education.

Next time we meet, we will be discussing Hailey Alcaraz's book, Up in Flames.