Eleven short stories by award-winning poet Soto portray Latino kids bridging the span between cultures and generations. Soto brings sensitivity and humor to these portrayals of first love, deceit, success vs. failure and the ups and downs of friendship.
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults A Booklist Editors' Choice Hornbook Fanfare Selection
Reviews
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Gary Soto, fiction writer and award-winning poet, captures the everyday life of Latino young people and their families and friends in these 11 stories. Soto explores issues that are important to young people, like failure, honesty and love. Diaz and Gongora do a good job capturing the emotions of young people and skillfully reflect the confusion, frustration and joy of the characters. Both readers have "young" voices that convey an appropriate vulnerability. Each cassette is clearly marked with the stories it contains. P.B.J. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine
-Publishers Weekly...
Diaz and Gongora give Soto's heartfelt collection just the right spark of Latino flavor in this sharp audio production. With the help of solid performances (and crisp pronunciation of the smattering of Spanish words and phrases), listeners will take away a real sense of what it was like for many Mexican-American kids growing up in California's Central Valley...
- School Library Journal...
"The enthusiastic narration by Stephanie Diaz and Miguel Gongora is done with just the right tempo. The brief selections are ideal for classroom use as well as for listeners with short attention spans. These short stories are well suited to the audio format and will be an enriching addition to audio collections."
- AudioFile...
"Diaz and Gongora do a good job capturing the emotions of young people and skillfully reflect the confusion, frustration and joy of the characters. Both readers have "young" voices that convey an appropriate vulnerability."
