Estrella's Quinceañera
In the list of cybils nominations, there were several books that deal with multicultural issues, including Koyal Dark, Mango Sweet (which I reviewed a few days ago), Goy Crazy (which I will review soon), Nothing But the Truth (and a few whtie lies), and Estrella's Quinceañera.
Malín Alegría's first novel, Estrella's Quinceañera tells the story of Estrella, a girl from a Hispanic family who goes to a prestigious private school -- and who wants to keep those two worlds as separate as possible. But unfortunately, she's about to turn 15, which is a pretty big deal when your family is from Mexico. Estrella's mom is hellbent on giving her daughter the best quinceañera ever, while completely ignoring what Estrella wants for the big day.
Estrella's school friends on the other hand, not knowing anything about her family's plans (since she doesn't want them to), decide to throw her their own party for her birthday, and to set her up with a cute boy from school... but as always happens in these sorts of books, things don't go quite as planned. Add in Estrella's two former best friends (from before she went to the prep school), and Speedy, a very cute boy from the barrio... and you're in for a very fun ride.
While a little predictable, Estrella's Quinceañera is a fun introduction to Hispanic culture. I especially enjoyed the definitions of the Spanish words at the beginning of each chapter -- which not only define the term, but also contain Estrella's rather sarcastic comments about her family.
5 comments:
A young man just grabbed this title from the store. Of his own accord. Because I said it was funny. I was SO EXCITED! Take that, gender issues and those who make such assumptions! (My co-worker was so amazed that she proceeded to tell other customers that day. Yes!)
Oh, that's cool, LW!
I was pretty excited to read it after reading the excerpt on the back. Seriously funny.
That's really awesome, LW!
Have you heard yet what he thought about it?
Hey Jackie and Sara - He hasn't come back in yet to say if he's finished it. I'll let you know.
One of my favorite customers is reading Straight on 'til Morning by Christopher Golden while my co-worker is reading Looking for Alaska.
I keep running into people who work in this library world who HAVEN'T heard of John Green yet. It's shocking to me. Shocking.
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