I enjoyed this sweet coming of age story about a third generation Cuban American family in Miami. There is a lot of Spanish in this book. At first I found it annoying that there wasn’t an exact translation provided although the meaning is fairly easy to guess. After awhile I realized that there is no reason for it. Many people speak Spanish; the author is not obligated to translate for those who don’t! So Y
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Pablo Cartaya! Expand our minds please! It’s a great story on many levels that I think will work for middle school kids facing first girlfriend, family expectations, first loss, first political involvement through community activism and even first poem. I am left with envy for the big extended family that lives and works together sharing the strong bond of cultural identity, traditional cooking, language, and even poetry.
August 23, 2017