Posted by Author Torrey Maldonado has a gift for finding hope in dark situations. That gift stems from his own life growing up in a neighborhood where drugs and crime were everywhere – and in a home where he witnessed his mother become a victim of domestic abuse. Through it all, his beloved mom served as a beacon of light and font of wisdom so that he would choose a better path than some of the people around him. And Torrey has done exactly that through his writing career, penning short novels for tweens and teens that speak to their real lives and emotions.
Several years ago, Torrey earned a Christopher Award for his book “Tight,” and this year he won his second Christopher Award for the semi-autobiographical novel “Hands,” about a 12-year-old boy named Trevor who is torn between using his hands to create art or using them to fight his abusive stepfather, who is soon being released from prison. We discussed the book recently on “Christopher Closeup” (podcast below).
“One of the things that happened to me,” Torrey explained, “I had witnessed domestic abuse in my home, and I didn’t know, just like Trevor didn’t know. Then, when I became aware of it, just like Trevor, I decided I have to do something with my hands, something that will serve the now…Because like Trevor, I like to draw. Trevor is an amazing illustrator. People in his village feel he could go on to become an illustrator for one of these Spider-verse movies or one of these Marvel or DC comic books. They think that’s where his potential is, that’s where his light is. But he’s gotten messages that young people get throughout the ages: if someone hits you, you better hit them back. He’s trying to decide, is he going to use his hands to build and to create and to elevate – or is he going to use his hands to knock down and to destroy?”
Trevor’s mother in the book, like Torrey’s mother in real life, is a proponent of the former. She wants him to use his hands to develop his artistic gifts and build a good life and career for himself. At the same time, Trevor’s reasons for wanting to fight his stepfather are reasonable and justified. He simply wants to defend his mother. She, however, realizes that succumbing to an impulse towards violence can lead to unintended consequences, especially for a 12-year-old. Using a “Star Wars” analogy, Torrey compares it to Luke Skywalker being torn between using the Light Side of the Force or giving in to the Dark Side.
The message that Torrey repeatedly got from his mom was the famous Maya Angelou quote, “Be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”
“My mom,” he recalled, “she seasoned my young mind with all types of quotes. She told me to have the faith of a mustard seed. If you have the faith of a mustard seed, you could move mountains, and that comes straight out of the Bible. There’s another quote that my mom had taught me when I was younger. I don’t know if it’s rooted in the Bible, but I know it harks back to that time of Hammurabi and ancient Sumeria, ancient Mesopotamia. That quote isn’t so ancient because it’s relevant today, and it shows up in the ‘Black Adam’ superhero movie: ‘An eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind.’
“Trev doesn’t realize that by him trying to seek revenge…violence is going to beget violence,” Torrey continued. “He has a really pure heart and pure intentions in learning how to use his hands, because he wants to do what we all want. He wants to defend his family…However, he doesn’t realize that the sword is a double-edged sword. So, it’s really hard for him to follow another piece of advice. And this is a piece of advice implicitly set inside ‘Hands,’ but it’s not explicitly stated. It was explicitly stated to me. My mom loved the Bible quote, ‘If a man hits one cheek, you turn your cheek and you give him the other cheek.’ Meaning, don’t give into your anger, don’t give into your rage because violence will beget violence. Instead, try to be humble because the meek shall inherit.”
It must be noted that it is not only Trev’s mother who discourages him from fighting, but also the men in his life, the men he refers to as “uncles,” even though they are not necessarily blood related. These uncles represent manhood to Trev, and tell him they are willing to protect him and his mom from anything bad happening.
While some of these uncles are straightforward positive influences, others have lived lives that aren’t so admirable. But even these seeming “bleak characters,” as Torrey describes them, shine a light because they do not want Trev going down the same roads that they chose. “That’s one of the messages that comes through in ‘Hands,'” Torrey explained. “[Trev] has a lot of helpers, and he has a lot of people who are protecting his light.”
Since “Hands” is based on their real lives, Torrey got his mother’s blessing before writing the story, and she was excited to read it. Sadly, she passed away before the book was published. Torrey noted, “This book is a love letter to my mother. I believe that she’s on the other side smiling because the book is carrying her message. And it’s a message that is inside the book, where the mom of Trev tells him, ‘Be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud.’ I’m just trying to keep my mom’s spirit living by living the message.”
That goal is being achieved beyond Torrey’s imagination because response to the book has been incredibly positive. He said, “I’m really pleased with how universally the book has been accepted because I was scared…that I was writing such a specific story that comes from my life that others wouldn’t be able to relate to it. Recently, ‘Hands’ won the Global Read Aloud Award for junior high schools and middle schools. So, starting in October, millions of classrooms around the world will be reading it. I get messages from kids of all backgrounds who say, ‘This book is my life.’ There’s this one interview I recently did with, I believe, he’s a sixth-grade boy. He’s white. And he said that Trev’s life is his life. It boggled my mind because on the surface, they don’t look like each other. But when you dig down, there’s a core of humanity that connects all of us.”
There is another connection that Torrey discovered unexpectedly when he won his first Christopher Award for “Tight.” Throughout his childhood, his mom had a copper image in a silver frame hanging on the wall of their home. It featured a man hunched over carrying a child on his shoulders. That was St. Christopher carrying the child Jesus.
Fast forward to many years later when Torrey received his first Christopher Award: “When I saw the award,” he recalled, “my jaw dropped because the saint on the award, the image on the award was the exact same image that I had seen growing up my whole life, from being a tot all the way up to I’m graduating college. So, I looked at the award and I said, ‘Wait a minute, what’s happening here?’ It’s fascinating that my mom had planted the image of St. Christopher in my head long before you planted the Christopher Award in my hand.”
Regarding his hopes for young people who read “Hands,” Torrey concluded, “It’s the Christopher motto. The Christopher motto is instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle. There’s a rapper that has global recognition who said something similar, but he didn’t say it in the same way…Tupac said, ‘I may not be the person who sparks the change that we need, but I might spark in the hearts and minds of someone who will be the person who will create the change that we need.’ So, my hope with ‘Hands,’ the hope with all of my books, is that I spark in others a desire to do better, to be better, and also I spark in others a desire to elevate and to be constructive instead of spreading hate and being destructive.”
(To listen to my full interview with Torrey Maldonado, click on the podcast link):
Light One Candle - the blog of The Christophers 