June 23, 2003
Violet Paz, the charismatic narrator of this funny first novel, doesn't know much about her Cuban heritage when her grandmother offers to throw her a quinceañero, a traditional coming-of-age party for a 15-year-old girl. By party time, however, Violet has learned not only about Cuban culture but even "what is true" about her family and herself. Osa spins a host of story lines: Violet joins the speech team, performing an ever-evolving comedy routine about "the Loco Family" (she bases her material on a multi-day domino party that the police broke up); she fights with her father, who refuses to talk about Cuba (his parents fled to America with him when he was a baby); and she even finds her first boyfriend. The author can't quite flesh out all these characters and plot points to their full potential (the intimidating speech coach, for instance, seems exaggerated for no reason). Mostly, though, Violet and her wacky family and friends—including a pun-loving mother and a vegetarian who breaks up with her boyfriend when he wears leather to a PETA meeting—keep the fiesta moving at a lively clip. As a bonus, readers get some exposure to Cuban history and culture, including a smattering of Spanish words and phrases. Ages 12-up.
June 1, 2003
Gr 6-10-Violet Paz, a 10th grader in suburban Chicago, spends the better part of a year preparing for her quincea-ero, the celebration of her womanhood, that her Cuban grandmother longs for her to experience. While her attention to the plans and her understanding of what the event means wax and wane in her consciousness, she turns her family's personal foibles and social extravagances into fodder for her speech team's Original Comedy competition. She wittily points up the bizarreness of her father's sartorial choices, her little brother's peskiness, her mother's quest to open her own restaurant, and the family's devotion to dominoes. She also struggles to make sense of traditions-including formal gown and waltzing-that are foreign to her life. Violet's father, born in Cuba and brought to the U.S. as a baby, refuses to discuss his native culture with his children, and Violet becomes increasingly anxious to learn more about her roots. Her two best friends are more than simply foils; they provide texture, humor, and tension to the story. In addition to speech team and family affairs, Violet's year includes a first crush and first date, each of which resolves pleasantly. Among the many strengths of this book are its likable and very real protagonist and her introduction to the nexus of politics and family. Too much goes on in this first novel, but the characters are so charming that while readers are in their company, the experience is interesting and engaging rather than frustrating.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
July 1, 2003
Gr. 6-10. Violet Paz, growing up in suburban Chicago, barely knows Spanish, and her dad refuses to talk about his Cuban roots, so it's a real surprise when Abuela insists that Violet have a grand " quinceanero," the traditional Latina fifteenth-year coming-of-age ceremony. But Violet insists that she is an American. After all, she looks a lot like her Polish American mother. What's more, she wouldn't be caught dead in any onstage ceremony wearing a ruffled pink dress and a tiara. As wonderfully specific as this first novel is to one immigrant family, many teens will recognize the cross-generational conflict between assimilation and the search for roots. Violet's hilarious, cool first-person narrative veers between slapstick and tenderness, denial and truth, as she shops for her party dress, attends a Cuban peace rally, despairs of her dad's values and his taste in clothes, sees that her American friends are also locked in crazy families, and finds the subject for her school comedy monologue in her own wild home, where she is "sentenced to life." There's no message, unless it's in the acceptance that resolution doesn't happen and that Dad is still worth loving--even if he comes to the elegant" quinceanero" in his favorite sunshine-yellow shirt with multicolored monkeys printed on it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)
April 4, 2005
"The charismatic narrator of this funny first novel doesn't know much about her Cuban heritage when her grandmother offers to throw her a quinceañero," said PW
. "The heroine and her wacky family and friends keep the fiesta moving at a lively clip." Ages 12-up.
July 1, 2003
Fifteen-year-old Violet Paz, who is half Cuban American, half Polish American, feels as though she has a lot of "half talents" but nothing she's really good at. Newly recruited to the high school speech team, Violet discovers her comedic abilities, writing a funny shtick about her "Loco Family." Violet's wry narration will make readers laugh, whether or not their families are as loco as Violet's.
(Copyright 2003 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)