“For better or for worse, the teenage voice is in my ear all day long,” he said. Ribay had a bit of an advantage when it came to capturing the voice of modern day teens in his manuscript: He’s been a high school teacher for 13 years. I don’t remember reading a single book featuring a Filipino until I got to college.” “Because I didn’t have that mirror growing up. “First and foremost, I was writing it for Filipino Americans, that was the primary audience in mind - Filipino American teenagers,” he said. The author of two other books for young adults, Ribay says that in many ways “Patron Saints of Nothing” is his most personal work yet. Randy Ribay was born in the Philippines and raised in the Midwest. They would periodically visit throughout his childhood. As gripping as it is lyrical, Patron Saints of Nothing is a page-turning portrayal of the struggle to reconcile faith, family, and immigrant identity. “I wanted to position Jay as a learner,” Ribay said, noting that while Jay’s journey was an extreme one, the questions he had about identity were ones that many second generation Americans often experience.īorn in the Philippines to a Filipino father and a white mother, Ribay and his family moved to the U.S. Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay - 9781788951548 Categories: Childrens Fiction Childrens General Story Books Family Share Patron Saints of Nothing 4.27 (14,214 ratings by Goodreads) Paperback English By (author) Randy Ribay US11.73 Also available in Hardback US17.71 Free delivery worldwide Available. As Jay heads to his uncle’s house and begins to uncover what really happened to Jun, he realizes that things are more complicated than he expected them to be.

Patron saints of nothing randy ribay