One boy’s search for his father leads him to Puerto Rico, in this moving middle grade novel. Marcus Vega is 6 feet tall, 180 pounds, and the owner of a premature mustache. Looking like that when you’re only in the eighth grade can make you both a threat and a target.

After a fight at school leaves Marcus facing suspension, his mom decides it’s time for a change of environment. She takes Marcus and his younger brother to Puerto Rico to spend a week with relatives they don’t remember or have never met. But Marcus can’t seem to focus. His father is somewhere on the island, and Marcus can only think about finding him.

So begins Marcus’s incredible journey, a series of misadventures that takes him all over Puerto Rico in search of his elusive namesake. Marcus doesn’t know if he’ll ever find him, but what he ultimately discovers changes his life. And he even learns a bit of Spanish along the way.