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Look Both Ways in the Barrio Blanco | LitPick Book Reviews
Look Both Ways in the Barrio Blanco
Look Both Ways in the Barrio Blanco
Look Both Ways in the Barrio Blanco
Judith Robbins Rose
With humor and sensitivity, a debut novelist explores the coming of age of a girl caught between two cultures as she finds the courage to forge a new destiny.“Miss, will you be my Amiga?” Amiga means "friend" in Spanish, but at the youth center, it meant a lady to take you places. I never asked myself if two people as different as Miss and me could ever really be amigas. When Jacinta Juarez is paired with a rich, famous mentor, she is swept away from the diapers and dishes of her own daily life into a world of new experiences. But crossing la linea into Miss’s world is scary. Half of Jacinta aches for the comfort of Mamá and the familiar safety of the barrio, while the other half longs to embrace a future that offers more than cleaning stuff for white people. When her family is torn apart, Jacinta needs to bring the two halves of herself together to win back everything she's lost. Can she channel the power she’s gained from her mentor and the strength she’s inherited from Mamá to save her shattered home life?

Book Details

Genre: 

  • Juvenile Fiction

Age Level: 

  • 8 - 12
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Look Both Ways in the Barrio Blanco is a realistic adventure about Jacinta, a girl who is making her way in America. Miss, a reporter on TV, becomes Jacinta’s amiga, her friend, and helps her do just that. This book describes the hardships of being Mexican-American in an unfamiliar place. Jacinta lives in Maplewood, New Mexico, and the book provides a glimpse of how hard it is to cross the border in and out of Mexico.  Jacinta is smart and has many interests. She learns French, gymnastics, and attends ballet performances.

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