You Only Live Once, David Bravo, by Mark Oshiro

I really loved The Insiders, Mark Oshiro's 2021 queer, magical, middle school story (my review).  So I was very happy when You Only Live Once, David Bravo (September 2022, HarperCollins), got nominated for the Cybils and was a time slip book--reading it was three birds (1 pleasure, 2 happy duty), with  two curled up sit-downs.  It is also a queer, magical, middle school story, but with time travel!

David Bravo and his best friend, Antoine, are starting middle school together.  But they are on different schedule tracks, and 15 minutes of lunch together, plus cross country practice, is all they get.   His first assignment also discourages him greatly--a presentation about family culture and heritage is fraught when you are adopted, and complicated when you are Latinx, your dad is Mexican Brazilian American, and your mom Japanese American.  And he feels he really messed it up.  But worst of all he causes Antoine to have an accident that keeps him from running.  Antoine's father is set on making him a world class runner, and now David has derailed this, and maybe ruined their friendship.

So all he wants to do is just lie on the floor at home forever, wishing he could restart middle school. 

His wish is granted, in the shape of an annoying talking dog who says she's been sent by the powers that be to help him undo whatever mis-step it was that wrecked everything.  Fea (which means ugly in Spanish), sets right to work.  But each do-over just seems to make things worse.

Then it occurs to Fea that maybe it's not the past that needs fix, but the future that needs saving. Fea wasn't always an pushy time travel guide--she was once a young woman, back in the mid 20th century, who blew her own future.  She takes David back in time to see it  happen--the day Fea couldn't bring herself to say yes to the love of the girl who was her own best friend, and ended up with a broken heart.  And maybe if David realizes he'll only live once, it will give him the courage to acknowledge a truth--that Antoine too is more than just a friend.

There was a lot that awfully sweet here.  David's parents are just the best in so many ways.  Fea, who annoyed me lots at first, became someone to care about.  And David and Antoine are loveable (grown-up perspective), and relatable (mg school kid perspective)--both are figuring out who they are, in Antoine's case being honest with his dad about not actually wanting to be a world class runner, and in David's case, questioning his identity as an adopted child).  And of course figuring out what they feel for each other.

Since this is a time slip Tuesday post, I feel compelled to note that the time travel was very satisfactory and coherent, and was made even more enjoyable when Antoine got included.  I liked the trip back to the far past of the mid 20th century best, because it was such a nicely contrasting use of Fea's abilities (and also because it was a fresh scene, that added depth to the story).

The ending has a surprising and joyful twist as an added bonus (although I thought it was perhaps a bit too much of a good thing....like extra frosting)