As in Ann Jaramillo's La Línea (2006), Hobbs' latest puts a human face on the controversial issue of illegal immigration. No longer able to grow corn profitably in his Mexican village, 15-year-old Victor, who has supported his family since his father's death, resolves to go to El Norte: It's time for me to do what men from our village have to do. Lacking the money to secure a guide, he ventures to a border town to wait his chance in the whirlpool of recent deportees, newcomers, and grizzled mojados (wetbacks). Successive attempts find him trekking through mountains and desert, fleeing la migra, and unwittingly becoming entangled with ruthless drug traffickers. Hobbs' effort to show a broad view of the border-crossing experience, often by incorporating the hard-luck tales of Victor's acquaintances, results in a story arc that occasionally feels artificial. But the questions raised here are provocative and worthwhile (Are Americans willing to pick the fruits and the vegetables to fill their grocery stores?), and the propulsive adventure-and-survival elements will keep Hobbs' core audience hooked.

Traveling illegally to the United States to look for work, fifteen-year-old Victor leaves his mother and siblings in their Mexican village. This topical story is sometimes sad, sometimes hopeful, but always tense. Hobbs gives a face to the thousands of immigrants who risk their lives in the hope of building a future for their struggling families.

Fifteen-year-old Mexican Victor Flores is the man of his family. His father died in a construction accident while working illegally in South Carolina. Victor has been making ends meet by growing corn, but governmental subsidies paid to American farmers have cut his profits to near nothing. He realizes that the only way his family will have the money they need to survive is for him to make the risky border crossing himself. He doesn't have the $1,500 to pay a "coyote" to shepherd him across, so he's on his own. Victor runs into trouble before he even gets to the border. He makes the crossing once with a "lone wolf" named Miguel and is caught and deported. He meets up with his friend Rico, who has had problems of his own getting to El Norte . Rico tricks Victor into crossing with drug smugglers. Events turn out well enough for Victor, but he's surrounded by violence and death on his journey. Hobbs has created a page-turning adventure set squarely in the real world. He offers no easy answers and readers who accompany Victor might be enlightened to some harsh political realities. (Fiction. 10-16)

Gr 5 Up-Ever since his family moved to the tiny village of Los crboles, Victor has been best friends with Rico. When Rico tells him that he has enough money to pay for "a coyote" to help him cross into El Norte, Victor is unable to decide if he, too, should go along and look for work or try to feed his family with the pitiful annual corn harvest. The decision is made for him the next day when he discovers that the corn prices have bottomed out and that there is no point in even planting this year. Readers suffer with the 15-year-old as he makes his painful decision to leave his mother and younger siblings and attempts the dangerous border crossing, jumping trains, fleeing thieves and border officials, and suffering from thirst and hunger. His desperation and fear are completely believable as he faces near-death situations and must decide whom to trust. The author deftly weaves information concerning the local geography and customs into the plot. The story is well paced, sustaining readers' attention throughout. Pair this novel with Ann Jaramillo's La L'nea (Roaring Brook, 2006) for another fictional view of young people crossing the border between the U.S. and Mexico.-Melissa Christy Buron, Epps Island Elementary, Houston, TX Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

In his many outstanding novels for teens, Hobbs has celebrated Western North America from the boreal forests of Canada, through varied regions of the Western United States, and southward into Mexico. His books involve outdoor adventure in challenging and often remote landscapes. Here fifteen-year-old Victor Flores is compelled to leave his family and the village where he has lived all his life, to "cross the wire" from Mexico into the United States. Since the death of his father, Victor has been the sole support of his mother and young siblings, and he now faces fearful challenges. First having no money to pay "coyote" guides, he must make the illegal crossing without support, evading authorities and troublemakers on both sides of the border. Then lacking English language or trade skills-let alone a green card-he must somehow avoid deportation and earn enough to support himself and to send money home to his mother. Victor's story is riveting, and the reader is immersed in striking natural landscapes while experiencing at first hand the controversial drug, labor, and immigration politics of the Arizona-Mexico border region. While obviously sympathetic to migrant workers and illegal aliens, Hobbs is unsentimental in his portrayal of the hard lives and unpleasant choices facing impoverished Mexican villagers. Fleeing starvation, Victor soon finds himself facing drugs, gang warfare, and violence. No choices are easy or safe, and mere survival presents deadly risks at every turn. It is an exciting story in a vital contemporary setting.-Walter Hogan.