Romiette and Julio

“She liked starting a fresh journal. It was full of possibilities and unanswered questions—of days yet to come and events yet to happen.”

Romiette and Julio opens with an entry from Romi’s new journal, a gift for Christmas. This entry sets the tone for a novel about new experiences and self-discovery. The hope reflected in this quote suggests Romi’s youth, her position as a teenager on the threshold of adulthood; furthermore, the entry is written the night before Romi meets transfer student-turned-friend Julio.

“In the dream, I’m drowning…In deep water, like almost dying. It’s terrible, and I’m almost afraid to go to sleep…The water is so cold, and it’s hot.”

Romi’s recurring nightmare and her best friend Destiny’s belief in fate eventually manifest as reality. However, Romi is initially confused by her recurring nightmare of drowning. The water is both cold and hot, later revealed to be the result of her and Julio struggling in a freezing lake, having just escaped a boat set aflame by lightning. This dream sequence, a vision of the future, elevates Romi and Julio’s love as cosmic, an inexplicable force of nature.

“Gangs are going to be everywhere.”

Still angry over his parents’ decision to leave Corpus Christi, Texas, due to the presence of gangs, Julio asserts that gangs exist everywhere. Author Sharon M. Draper, having taught in Cincinnati public schools for more than 25 years, uses Thomas Jefferson High School to reveal the truth of Julio’s observation. For Draper, the problem with gangs in public schools cannot be addressed until it is first acknowledged.