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. Living in America helps Jacinta make her dreams come true, but she also experiences deportation, violence, and other hardships that may be foreign to most readers. For example, Jacinta's Uncle Victor (who gets drunk and cruel a lot), gets drunk, takes a truck, and runs over Jacinta's best friend's father, and then laughs about it.  Jacinta experiences another hard time when her father is deported, but she stays strong enough to help her mother.