A Journey in Pages: Books that Changed Hawks’ lives
By Isaac Pérez
3 February 2025
For those who read, the world is a much more interesting place. The fuzzy rug and the black pouf chairs in the Inquiry Room can become one's transport to realms of magical adventures, set the stage for heart-rending romance or echo thoughtful ruminations in our ears, all aided by pages of a book.
Since 2023, the Camino Library Club has been at the core of Camino’s reading culture. During the Middle and High school recess on most Thursdays, its members chat about books and organize activities that deepen the connection between people and literature.
Even in an age where video-based apps are the daily fare and reading books might seem like an exotic hobby, we still find passionate readers among the members of our Library Club. Four of them have shared with The Hawk about their favorite books, showcasing the many ways that books can continue to widen and enrich our lives.
Karola Vargas (11th Grade): Dí Hola, by Germán Garmendia
They say one should not judge a book by its cover, but in this case, the cover was exactly drove Karola Vargas towards her favorite. As she shopped for books on a Mexico City trip three years ago, she saw it.
“There was something about it, you know, just this tree and a figure of a person, and the words Say Hello. I was, like, what is this about?”, she says.
The most surprising thing about it, however, was the author’s name on the cover.
“I actually bought it because it was him who wrote it”, Karola says. “He’s a youtuber, an influencer, and he’s been around forever. I didn’t expect the kind of book that it was in the end.”
German Garmendia, 34, is a Chilean online personality, better known for his Youtube channel HolaSoyGerman, which he launched in 2011. Dí Hola (2018), is Garmendia’s first and so far only novel.
Karola does not consider herself a big reader, but she tries to read about ten books a year. She sticks with a book when she likes the story, Garmendia's both surprised and hooked her.
“It's about this boy Oscar, who meets this girl, Natalie. They fall in love and everything’s amazing, but then she’s diagnosed with this mortal illness”.
The youtuber side of the author then enters the plot.
“The biggest thing is that Natalie decides to make videos for Oscar, which he must watch one at a time after she dies, and where she asks him to do all these different tasks”.
Karola says that at the time that she read this book, she was most touched by Oscar’s journey completing Natalie’s tasks.
“It’s very depressing, you know, my heart was breaking as I read the book because you could also notice how much closer Natalie was to dying with each video she made."
For her, ultimately, the value of the story is what it can teach us about finding happiness.
"At the beginning, Oscar was this really lonely and sad person", Karola says. "But just seeing how Natalie makes this last effort even as she’s dying to leave something for him, that helps him get over his depression”.
Who should read this book?
“I’d like for my friend Itati to read it. She is just someone who reads a lot and very different things from what I read myself. I’d love to get her perspective”, Karola says.
Maisie Kucera: Flipped, by Wendelin Van Draanen
There’s probably no wrong way to find your favorite book. Some people, like Karola, can be immediately drawn in by a cover, but others take a road with a few more steps.
For Maisie Kucera, from 10th grade, hers was running into an "edit" video from a movie on TikTok, followed by watching the movie itself, which led her to wanting to read the book.
“It’s my favorite movie, like, to this day, ever,” she says. “So I read the book and I enjoyed it so much more”.
Maisie says that she enjoyed being able to see the story from an “inside” perspective, getting to look at the thought processes of the characters in much more detail than you get in the movie.
Her enjoyment, you could say, was triple too – she read the book while at the same time listening to it in audiobook form. According to a 2021 study sponsored by Audible, an audiobook service, 48% of children between 8 and 18 listen to audiobooks.
“I'm a very slow reader and it helps me read it faster, like cover to cover in one day.”
Flipped, as the title suggests, is a story with two sides.
“It is about this girl that has been head over heels for this boy for her entire life since she was 7, but by the end she realizes that he is not a good person and she was only attracted to him because of looks”.
Then, Maisie explains the "flipped" side: “At the same time, he ended up changing as a person, and even liking her, after hating her his entire life”.
According to Maisie, the book takes both of their perspectives and is able to present the reader with the unique point of view of each character as the relationship unfolds.
“While I was reading Julie's perspective, I was like, wow, Bryce is such a jerk”, she says, while also acknowledging Bryce’s point of view. “Like, yes, Julie was kind of a stalker at first…”
Who should read this book?
“Somebody who who feels that they have been wronged by someone else, because it really shows that your actions can be interpreted in a completely different way than you intend”.
Itati Azcona: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, by V. E. Schwab
Tools like TikTok and audiobooks help readers make even more meaningful connections to their favorite books, and they are also a part of the reading habits of Itatí Azcona, 11th grade student.
“It’s here in my Goodreads, I read it on November 28, 2023”, she tells me, with a note of pride in her voice.
Goodreads is a website and online community that lets users keep track of the books the have read, share their reviews with the world, and also make lists of books they’d like to read in the future.
The book she’s talking about is The Invisble Life of Addie LaRue (2020), by American fantasy writer V. E. Schwab. She says she arrived at it by watching Youtube book reviews and liking one for this novel, which she was able to find at Bookworm, a local bookstore.
The book is thicker than most pizza boxes, and Itatí's copy is sprinkled from cover to cover with multi-color sticky notes.
It tells the story of a woman who makes a trade with the devil. In exchange for immortality, she gives up the ability to be remembered by other people.
“The books shows her making her way through different time periods, different countries. It goes back and forth between the past and the present which is New York in 2013 or so, when she finally meets someone that actually remembers her and this is very shocking for her”.
Itatí is a voracious reader, a fact confirmed earlier by Karola. She says she read 20 books last year, and she wants to work her way up to 25 books in 2025. Other books she likes include The Lunar Chronicles, by Marissa Meyer and Coraline, by Neil Gaiman. Right now, she is reading Mockingjay, the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins.
While she usually likes fantasy books, she says she doesn’t tend to read books that focus so much on history, but this one was special to her.
“This character is continually observing history but never being a part of it and constantly wonders what it means to be remembered, whether you are worth something regardless of whether you leave a mark on the world”, she reflects.
“What I like a lot is that it deals with loneliness in a certain way and, I mean, how they feel about not having anybody and it makes you really value the people that you have and that care about you”.
Who should read this book?
Itatí hesitates at this question.
“It’s not an easy book, so probably students in eighth grade or above. The plot and the perspective switching back and forth between past and present make it hard to keep up with".
I insist a little – who might take a valuable lesson from this book?
“Anyone with a view of success that is based on the praise that you get from other people”, she tells me.
Miss Olivia: Symphony of Secrets, by Brendan Slocumb
Some people love books so much that they eventually end up wanting to write one.
Miss Olivia Kapell, Camino’s Language and Learning specialist and one of our librarians, is one of these people.
Having studied literature at university, Miss Olivia can name books and talk about them the same way some remember people they have met in the past.
To her as a writer, books reveal not only stories and characters, but also the hidden messages between artists, the way one musician winks at another while playing a solo.
Coincidentally, the novel she picked is a story of composers, classical musicians, and what it means to be known and eventually remembered as a great artist.
“I picked this book because it addresses a lot of themes that I’m personally interested in and I hadn’t read a work that addressed those themes so directly, and which I wanted to address in my own writing”, she says.
For writers, Miss Olivia says, reading books is as much about enjoyment as it is about learning the craft.
“You’re aware of every transition, you’re hyper-aware of character development. I’m just about to finish Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller and I’m super in tune with her craft because she’s such a master."
Books with musical-sounding titles just seem to be a thing for this teacher.
“I found [Symphony of Secrets] because some of my friends in my online writing group recommended another book by the same author, called The Violin Conspiracy, which I loved”.
Other books, she brings up in our conversation include Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney. Regarding authors, she says she loves the work of Fernanda Melchor and Valeria Luiselli (sadly, no musical book titles from them).
She feels like the more books she’s read by an author, the deeper the relationship she develops with them.
“I like when authors surprise me, like the new Sally Rooney book is a similar writing style but it’s very different from the last book that I read. That one was, pretty light, it was about relationships, but then this first scene of the new book starts with a funeral, which it’s not what I would expect.”
According to her Goodreads, Miss Olivia has read 15 books in the last year. She says with work and other obligations, 10 to 15 fiction books in her year are a realistic goals.
Who should read this book?
"Anyone that likes music, the music industry – music production, the history of that. If you like a mystery novel where you’re needing to put pieces together in someone’s story I think it’s a good book for that."
