The following version was used to make this guide: Acevado, Elizabeth. Clap When You Land. New York, New York: HarperTeen, 2020. This young adult novel is 417 pages long, with a variety of chapter formats, but for the purposes of this guide, has been split into nine sections. The novel is written in verse, with Spanish words added throughout, and with a variety of poetic structures. It is told from the two first person perspectives of two teenage girls who are half sisters, Camino in the Dominican Republic, and Yahaira in New York City, until they are both in the Dominican Republic in the last 100 pages of the novel.

The novel opens from Camino’s perspective describing her home and the island. She and Tia help an old woman dying from cancer. Camino goes to the airport to meet her father, who is supposed to be arriving from New York. He has been gone for nine months. She is told that there was an accident.

Yahaira, in New York City, is called to the principal’s office where her mother tells her the news, her father was on a plane to the DR that crashed in the ocean. Camino starts to worry about money, as her father paid for her school and living expenses. He also paid El Cero, a sex trafficker, to stay away from Camino. El Cero starts to stalk Camino, and she gets nervous about life without her father’s financial protection.

Yahaira, remembering her father, describes how she played chess. Last summer she tried to talk to her father about “The Thing That Happened” while he was away in the Dominican Republic but he did not answer her calls (56). She searched for his work number, and found an envelope that changed her life. Three days after the crash they learn that there have been no survivors, and Yahaira’s girlfriend Dre comforts her. Four days later they learn divers are trying to find remains and personal items.

In the Dominican Republic, Camino and Tia pray as they learn that there are no survivors. They are both worried about life as they knew it. Camino keeps going to school. She can try for a scholarship, but she is worried about her delayed future.

In New York, Yahaira starts skipping school, and her mother starts skipping work. It is now 14 days after the crash, and divers have recovered physical remains of Papi. They discuss where he will be buried, and his will stipulates the Dominican Republic. Mami protests, but Tio Jorge, Papi’s brother, insists. Yahaira wants to attend and visit in person, but Mami refuses. Yahaira thinks about how Papi had another wife in the DR, which is what she found in the envelope.

Carline gives birth in the middle of the night to a premature baby boy that Tia brings to life.

Yahaira leaves a chess piece at her father’s memorial in front of his billiards in New York City. She thinks about a time when a man assaulted her on the train after a chess match victory. She tried to call her father and searched for a work number; this is how she found her father’s marriage certificate to the woman in the DR. Yahaira stopped going to chess matches and Papi called her angrily, but she never told him what happened or what she had found out. Twenty-one days after the crash, the airline insurance representatives present Mami and Yahaira with a half a million dollar cash settlement.

Tia finds out about the money, and Tia tells Camino she has a sister in New York City, but Yahaira’s mother Zoila would make it difficult for Camino to get part of the settlement. El Cero keeps stalking Camino at the beach, and tries to force her to be with various men.

Yahaira’s mother gives out money to her family, and Yahaira starts to worry. One day, Yahaira sees a friend request from a girl in the Dominican Republic, with her last name and her father in her profile picture. Mami confesses to Yahaira that she has a half sister, and her father married another woman in the DR, but she is dead now.

Mami and Yahaira host a wake for the remains of Papi’s body before shipping it back to the DR. Mami still refuses to go, but Yahaira buys a plane ticket to fly there with Papi’s body. Camino meanwhile, demands and receives $10,000 from Yahaira, and prepares for her visit without telling Tia. Yahaira is scared on the flight, and when they land people on the plane clap. When Yahaira gets there, her mother calls Yahaira angrily to say she is coming.

Mami arrives and is kind to Camino. They have a ceremony to bury Papi, and Yahaira and Mami decide to leave in three days. In the middle of the night, Camino rips up her parents’ marriage certificate that Yahaira brought, takes the cash, and steals Yahaira’s passport. She decides to walk to the airport, but first stops at the beach. El Cero is there and steals her money and passport. He assaults her as it starts raining. Yahaira wakes up and sees the ripped certificate. Vira Lata’s barking and Yahaira knocking over a lamp wake up Mami and Tia. They realize quickly where Camino has gone.

They pull up to the beach to find Camino struggling against El Cero. Yahaira pushes him off her, while Tia walks out slapping her machete and Mami blasts the headlights telling El Cero she is an important person, and to leave Camino alone. He leaves the scene. When they get back, Mami and Yahaira decide to take Camino back with them to the U.S. Mami helps Camino get a visa.

Carline visits, and her baby is beginning to thrive. Camino and Tia visit the old woman with cancer, and she is getting better. Camino and Yahaira hold hands on the flight, and the novel ends as Yahaira tells Camino that people might clap when they land.