Hey everyone, this is Og Maciel with another exciting book recommendation from Bellwether. This week, I’m bringing you a young adult book that I first read back in 2021—Holes by Louis Sachar. The story revolves around Stanley Yelnats, a young kid who one day finds himself unexpectedly in trouble. While walking down the street, a pair of sneakers suddenly fall from the sky and land on him. Before Stanley knows it, he’s being accused of stealing those sneakers!

As a younger boy in Brazil, I absolutely loved comic books! I vividly remember waiting for my turn to read a freshly bought, pages-still-crisp, fresh-off-the-magazine-stand edition of “Turma da Mônica”1 by the Brazilian cartoonist Mauricio de Sousa2. Often, I would wait for one of my parents to come home with it so that I could be the first to enjoy it while lightly teasing my sisters as they waited their turn.