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We Were Here is a 2009 young adult novel by Matt de la Peña that follows the story of Miguel, a teenager who rebels from the law. We Were Here was recognized as a ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults, an ALA-YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, a Junior Library Guild Selection and was named to the 2010 NYC Public Library Stuff for the Teen Age list.

Plot
The novel begins with Miguel getting caught stealing a bike. At the hearing, the judge sentences him to go to a group home for a year and makes him also write in a journal while he's there. Before he could go to the group home, he had to go to a Juvenile center for about 4 days. During those days, he gets in fight with is his roommate Rondell.When he moves into the group home in the morning after the fight with Rondell. he gets in a fight again on the first day with this kid named Mong. One night while Miguel is sleeping Mong comes into his room and stands over him and then Miguel wakes up and sees him he gets scared. The other kids in the group home try to explain to him how Mong is insane.

About a month into his sentence his old Juvi roommate, Rondell, moves into his room with him at the group home. Then about a week after Rondell moving in, Miguel wakes up too see Mong standing over him asking to break out with him. Rondell wants to come with them. During lunch time when they can get away they devise a plan to break out through the window in in he middle of the night and then they are going to run to this spot where Mongs cousin is going to give them a ride. As a last minute decision, Miguel goes into the counselers office and steals all of his money and the files of the three of them. Once their main guard goes home the night shift guy comes in. When they start the breakout they notice that night shift guy is deep asleep they just walk right past him and jump through the window.

When they get to the mall where they are supposed to meet she is not there and they start to worry if she is ever going to show up She forces them to agree to that first she wants Mong too see his "gung gung" his grandfather. But they have too go he opposite way of mexico too do that. So while shes in the bathroom they run away. They head south towards mexico and they hit a bus that takes them too Santa Cruz.When they notice that they are getting hungry they go to a convenience store and they are walking around the store but the guy keeps following them around store thinking they were going to steal something. The convenience cashier was being very racist so Mong beats him up and ties him up in telephone wire. They then take everything they want and leave with him tied up still. Miguel loot the file that he stole out of the counselor folder that was at the group home. He then figures out some deep info about Mong and Rondell. They start walking towards mexico on the beach but they get tired so they start trying to hitchhike but a cop stops and ask. For their name and the cop figures that they were the fugitives that broke out of the group home. They make a run for it and get away. They then try backtracking so they throw the cops off their tail.

After they back track they then try to catch a bus that take them further south. The bus doesn't show up for another 60 minutes they take a walk around town and they see this basketball court so they head over there and they start playing bit Mong gets sick so he has to sit the bench. But something that Miguel figures out about Rondell is that he is a very good basketball player. When Miguel, Rondell, and Mong start heading down south more Mong Kidney Disease it keeps getting worse and worse. After a long day of walking they stop to eat dinner and after they eat dinner Miguel and Mong start talking then after talking for a little while they go to sleep and when they wake up they see Mong at the edge of the ocean and he just dives in and starts swimming out farther and farther then he just disappears right then and they just keep on walking without Mong. They make it down to the the border of Mexico and Miguel just doesn’t want to go over the border because he sees that this was a journey for himself and that he hasn’t truly found himself yet.

Reception
We Were Here received mostly positive reviews. Publishers Weekly said it was "furiously paced" and described the book as a "gripping novel". The journal also praised its "inverse authenticity". One reviewer noted the theme of the search for self: "The riveting climax shows with out heavy message that the hero's journey is a search for himself," as Rochman, of Booklist, wrote. The novel is written in "raw yet reflective journal entries" from Miguel's point of view.