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In this coming-of-age story, Jacqui, a smart and hardworking Mexican American 17-year-old, is just trying to win a scholarship to UCLA and get out of the California barrio she lives in with her mom and younger siblings. It’s 1972, and her family has been struggling both financially and emotionally since her dad died in Vietnam…Jacqui’s a sympathetic, authentic, and resourceful character worth rooting for. Readers will find themselves swept up into this compulsively readable and engaging story of a teenager struggling to make a better life for herself.
Booklist Starred Review
“With its honest teenage voice and a gritty realism that evokes what life would have been like for a Mexican American teenager in the California of the 1970s, this novel stands out. An excellent example of historical fiction that teaches and also transports.“
Kirkus Review
alvaradofrazier.com 