Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

2011/224 pgs

Lupita's mother is battling cancer which leaves Lupita in charge of her brothers and sisters. As the eldest, Lupita takes on more responsiblity as her father works to pay for the hospital bills and stay close to her mother. Lupita is an aspiring actress and finds solace in her theater classes-a place she can escape to.

This novel is told in verse and was shortlisted for the Morris award as well as winning the Pure Belpre author award. It's a heartbreaking and beautiful story about Lupita as she grows up amid difficult times and find hope in her future. The verse format works well to tell Lupita's worries, struggles and desires and it's a well written story about family and love.

"Girl in Translation" by Jean Kwok

293 pages

Eleven-year-old Kimberly Chang and her mother are supposed to feel blessed and grateful after Kim's aunt Paula arranges for them to follow her from Hong Kong to the United States. Her father died in an accident when Kim was young, and she and her mom don't have many options for getting out of poverty back home. However, Kim quickly learns that things aren't as easy in America as she's been led to believe. She finds herself leading a double life: star student during the day, sweatshop worker in the evenings. The tiny Brooklyn apartment she shares with Ma is infested with roaches and doesn't have heat. As the years go by, Kim becomes more and more determined to use her intelligence to take herself and her mother on to better things, but her intense romantic feelings for another young factory worker force her to make some huge decisions that will affect not only her own future but that of the people she loves.

I though that this story was a little slow at the beginning. My heart broke for Kim and the horrible position she found herself in, but I think the author spends too much time focusing on the obstacles she faced--it gets repetitive. However, the pace really picks up in last quarter of the book and the plot takes some unexpected twists that made the story more complicated and interesting. There are so many great elements to this book that lots of people will be able to relate to, at least indirectly--Kim's relationship to her mother; the conflict between her Chinese identity and her desire to be American; her struggle to balance her ambition with her loyalty to the people around her. I also like that this story draws attention to the fact that a lot of people are essentially enslaved in the United States today, with incredible obstacles preventing them from escaping from that situation. I'm still not sure exactly how I felt about the ending, but it didn't turn out the way that I expected and it made me think, and I always like those two things.