Gr 3-6 Joe Silva lives on Ruiz Street with his large and loving Hispanic family. He longs for a best friend and a new bike, and is terrified of David, a new kid in town. The big, tough guy is shabbily dressed, his actions are threatening, and hes always seen riding a different old bicycle. The Silva kids and their friends can only come to the conclusion that he is a thief. As the story develops, Joe does make a new best friend, but the Ruiz Street kids keep having unhappy encounters with David. Eventually, it is revealed that he uses his aggression to hide his insecurities. When the friends accept him into the fold, he turns out to be a regular kid, living with his grandfather and helping out at the local junkshop (where he gets his bicycles). Bertrand brings to life this working-class Southwestern neighborhood full of large, struggling families. The kids get together to play pickup games of baseball, enjoy family celebrations, and ride their bikes to the town pool. The characters are well developed and appealing. The simple (and sometimes comical) black-and-white illustrations are interspersed at just the right intervals for this age group. The Spanish translation, which follows the English text, is fluent and reads well.