One year in Uvalde A story of hope and resilience

Television journalists Quiñones (Heroes Among Us) and Salinas (I Am My Father's Daughter) offer a moving yet insufficiently contextualized look at a bereaved community. Following the 2022 murders of 19 fourth-grade students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex., producer Cindy Galli suggested that, rather than pull up stakes soon after the killings, an ABC news crew "commit to six months to a year to tell the stories of the families and the community." Her idea was implemented, and the authors, along with support staff, embedded themselves in the grieving city and patiently worked to establish bonds with parents who'd lost their children and others affected by the massacre. The book's strongest sections center on the harrowing, in-depth reflections the authors elicited from shooting victims. They include Arnie Reyes, a teacher whose entire class was killed, and 10-year-old Noah Orona, who witnessed the murder of his friends. The authors also loosely chronicle the massacre's political aftermath, including an unsuccessful push for Texas gun control measures and the search for answers over a delayed law-enforcement response. Despite the authors' care and thoughtfulness, Galli's pitch that "the narrative is not in the shooting" but instead "the real story is in the recovery" never stops feeling like a misdirection away from accountability. This unsophisticated approach will leave readers unsatisfied. (May)

Two ABC News journalists report from a small town stricken by mass murder throughout its long aftermath. "What happens when we leave?" write veteran reporters Quiñones and Salinas. "That's a real part of the story, and we're missing it simply by not being there." Uvalde, Texas, is the site of a horrific school shooting on May 24, 2022. "The fact that the shooter was, in so many ways, one of them, a member of the community, a kid from town, a product of Robb Elementary, shocked many," write the authors. Yet the facts remain: that the shooter was alienated from everyone, the product of a fatherless home with a mother with "a history of drug abuse"--in short, a walking warning sign. That nothing was done doomed 19 children and two adults. However, there were other warning signs that the investigative team turned up. For example, the chief of school police had been demoted from an earlier position, his former boss testifying that if anyone had ever called him, he would have warned the school system against hiring him. The authors' comment is rather bland here: "Records show that the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (UCISD) might not have fully reviewed Arredondo's records prior to hiring him." Arredondo, who accrued authority and decision-making power to himself, seemed not to realize that he was in charge on the ground--nor, it seems, was anyone else. The better parts of the text are the sensitive, sometimes heartbreaking inquiries into the effects of the deaths of the children on families and the community as a whole. If there's a little too much self-regard by the intrepid journalists, the book will be of interest to counselors and educators, among other readers. Vivid testimony on how violence both tears a community apart and pulls it together. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.