Parents' Guide to Barely Missing Everything

Parents need to know that Barely Missing Everything, by Matt Mendez, is the story of two Mexican American high school buddies and a single mother from El Paso, Texas, living in a low-income community where prejudice and racism abounds. The book sheds light on how brown lives struggle and what they must endure to survive. The telling of the story varies from an omniscient narrator to the three main characters themselves. Juan places his hopes on a basketball scholarship as his ticket to getting out of his situation. JD wants to become a filmmaker and documents his life any moment he can. Single mom Fabi, who had Juan when she was just 16, is caught in a situation she's not ready for. The novel takes the reader on a bumpy and often heart-wrenching ride, as readers see the consequences of choices the characters make, including situations they unwittingly put themselves in. Violence includes Fabi's boyfriend hitting her, a physical fight between two characters, a boy crashing his car into a tree, a boy beaten by police, and a character and someone killed by a police officer. Teens regularly drink beer and on one or two occasions smoke weed. One of Juan's adult family members is an alcoholic.There's frequent strong language in English and Spanish, including "motherf----r," "bitch," "a--hole," "cabrón," and "pendejo." Police officers make racist comments; after a character is shot, one says, "He's probably an illegal."