Dear Haiti, Love Alaine

By: Maika Moulite, Maritza Moulite

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

When a school presentation goes very wrong, Alaine Beauparlant finds herself suspended, shipped off to Haiti, and writing the report of a lifetime....

You might ask the obvious question: What do I, a 17-year-old Haitian American from Miami with way too little life experience, have to say about anything?

Actually, a lot.

Thanks to "the incident" (don’t ask), I’m spending the next two months doing what my school is calling a "spring volunteer immersion project." It’s definitely no vacation. I’m toiling away under the ever-watchful eyes of Tati Estelle at her new nonprofit. And my lean-in queen of a mother is even here to make sure I do things right. Or she might just be lying low to dodge the media sharks after a much more public incident of her own...and to hide a rather devastating secret.

All things considered, there are some pretty nice perks...like flirting with Tati’s distractingly cute intern, getting actual face time with my mom, and experiencing Haiti for the first time. I’m even exploring my family’s history - which happens to be loaded with betrayals, superstitions, and possibly even a family curse.

You know, typical drama. But it’s nothing I can’t handle.

©2019 Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite (P)2019 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited

Great book

Enjoyed the characters, the mother/ daughter dynamic was very heartbreaking at times. learned a lot about Haiti

A good read for young readers!

I'm usually a non fiction reader but previewing books to pass on to my children and niece.This book fits the bill easy entertaining listen and while some subject matters are adult in nature they are handled in a way that's not overly graphic which I'm thankful for.If you have young readers 13 and up this would be a good choice.As a a warning there is a story line about sexual abuse but its done in a manner that its implied with out and raunchy expletives

I knew I'd love this!

I will forever be hooked by stories that represent the Caribbean because that is where I hail from. The history, the representation, the foods, the recipes, the folklore (voodoo/witches) it all give me a sense of coming home to eat at the family table. And I DEVOURED this story. Every bit of it. Hungrily and without shame! Thank you Maika & Maritza for this!

4.75 stars

Awesome representation of Haiti and it’s rich juicy history

I loved this story and the breadth and depth in its telling. Alaine is quirky character and the twists and turns in her tale kept me engaged throughout the entire book.

My only negative would be the fact that the person reading it read in a French accent rather than a Haitian one and that bothered me because if I wanted to listen to a book in French I wouldn’t have picked up something called “Dear Haiti”. Please be considerate of your audience and find a Haitian narrator.

great story, but hard to follow on audio

I love Bahni Turpin and this book was a super fun story, but I found myself getting confused and lost with the jumping back and forth between emails, flashbacks, text messages, and regular diary entries. If I had read this in ebook or physical book, I might have followed along better. Overall, it was a decent contemporary YA.

A nice light read

I bought this for my rising middle school God Daughter on recommendation as a fun summer read. She LOVES to read, but I of course wanted to read it first before gifting it. Glad I read it to the end. It was a clean read, but with some tooics illuded to, I think I'll hold onto it to gift when she's a bit older (like 7th or 8th) instead of staying 6th this fall.

It was a fun and interesting story and to my American ears with only one Hatian American friend, the narrtion accent didn't bother me. Outside of the accent maybe not being as "authentic" as some would hope for, I thought the narrator did a great job giving distinctive voices to the characters, which was needed as it's a little confusing with the jumps between the characters thoughts, emails, letters and text. I had to replay some parts 2x to get it.

4 stars for the jumping and the wrap up. The end was ok, but the main character's conclusions fell flat for me. I'm guessing that was indicative of her maturity; maybe if I were younger, I would have agreed but as an adult, you definitely know things aren't always so polarized.

If nothing else, I found myself looking into Haitian history and wanting to try her twist out recipe. I'm looking forward to being one of those cruise tourist she spoke of this fall.

Love Bahni but that’s it

I decided to listen to this audiobook because I love Bahni Turpin’s narration but this story didn’t do it for me.

Read the book vs listening on audible

Kudos to the authors for a cute book with content us Haitian-American could identify with. The narration, however, was terrible- it should have been someone who knows the pronunciation of the basics like “Fritay”. The audio version could have done without the accent, because none of our aunts or uncles sound like that and was just unnecessary.

Lively story about Haitian Family

This title is deceiving as it really does not talk much about Haiti but is more about family dynamics. Alaine is pompous and arrogant. Story attempts to weave in Haitian curse but does a poor job.

Little torn

Alaine gets so annoying by the end, but I enjoyed the characters overall. The performance was beautiful.