The Last Time I Saw Him

Twelve-year-old Amara Santiago hasn’t spoken much since the day her father was killed outside their Bronx apartment. Everyone tells her it wasn’t her fault-but Amara can’t stop replaying the moment in her mind. She saw him. He saw her. And she didn’t move.

Now her world feels like static: her mom cries in silence, her friends don’t know what to say, and school feels like walking through fog. When a new counselor gives Amara a blank sketchbook, she doesn’t expect much. But soon the pages begin to fill-with broken lines, snapshots of her father, and shapes she can’t explain.

Then she meets Devon, a boy with his own sketchpad and his own story of loss. Together, they begin to trade drawings instead of words, and Amara starts to realize that maybe grief isn’t about forgetting-it’s about remembering in new ways.

But when her anger threatens to break through, Amara must face the hardest truth of all: her father’s life was bigger than the way it ended. And the only way forward is to draw the memory of how he lived-bright, bold, and unafraid.

The Last Time I Saw Him is a powerful and heartfelt novel about grief, friendship, and the healing power of art. Poignant yet hopeful, it speaks to anyone who has ever loved and lost-and shows that even in silence, our voices can be found.