Horn Book (Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

This exploration of life in the barrio culminates in a quinceanera celebration. Chocolate's prose includes sensory images ("rain-washed murals," "silver-streaked tenements"). Diaz's distinctive mixed-media illustrations use a bold color palette to bring the neighborhood to vibrant life. The book as a whole gives a tangible sense of community united through joyous traditions.

Kirkus Reviews

In the barrio lives a boy whose sister is getting ready for her quinceanera . Using the coming-of-age festival for its narrative structure, the book is really a celebration of Latino culture and life in the city, Chocolate's minimal text giving the boy voice as he describes his home: " El barrio is silver-streaked tenements, / neon city streets, / storefront churches, / and bodegas that never sleep." The vibrant illustrations combine woodcuts, painting and collage, all seemingly jumbled together in a riotous blend of color and texture. Depictions of other Latino celebrations and sprinklings of Spanish words add to the beautiful chaos of the illustrations. A collage frame composed of such material as beads, pebbles or tile surrounds each page, informing the composition of the interior image. Color, action and feeling are of utmost importance here and together create a dazzling, flamboyant impression of urban Latino life, bringing Diaz's work to a whole new level. A glossary gives phonetic pronunciations of Spanish words used in the text as well as defining those words. Highly recommended for all collections. (Picture book. 4-8)

School Library Journal (Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2009)

PreS-Gr 2 A neighborhood that will ring true for many readers is introduced in this picture book. "This is el barrio !/My home in the city/with its rain-washed murals/and sparkling graffiti." The speaker goes on to list all the things that make the community what it is: Cinco de Mayo and Day of the Dead, quinceañeras and piñatas, "Aztec eyes and Mayan faces." The poetic text and glowing illustrations praise a type of neighborhood that is often derogated or ignored: "silver-streaked tenements,/neon city streets,/storefront churches,/and bodegas that never sleep." Diaz returns to his classic thick-outlined woodcuts, but here the outlines change color through a rainbow of hues, making the spreads shimmer with color and movement. The framed spreads float over photographic collages that evoke the cityas in Eve Bunting's Smoky Night (Harcourt, 1994), but here, with more festivity. The book never goes far beyond its lists; a description of a quinceañera at the end attempts to link a narrative to the speaker, but is thin and almost unnecessary. Yet simply by calling upon these images as treasure ("syrupy sweet churros, /ice-cold paletas /and a lemon-yellow fire escape/as tall as a city skyscraper"), the book shows some young readers that their neighborhood, too, is both normal and specialand shows others what lies in the neighborhoods next to theirs. Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CA

ALA Booklist

In first-person voice, a boy describes his home in the city: "This is el barrio! My home in the city with its rain-washed murals and sparkling graffiti." The simple text portrays street scenes, cultural celebrations, and people enjoying themselves on Cinco de Mayo, the Day of the Dead, and his sister's quinceañera. Thick lines surround the woodcut-like artwork imbued with a rainbow of glowing colors. Fascinating mixed-media collages (toy skulls, rocks, beads, shells) border each spread. The whole is an exuberant cacophony of colors and sights, useful in classrooms and multicultural settings for how it expands the often simplistic view of what makes up a barrio. A one-page glossary of Spanish words is included, and readers will enjoy practicing the correct phonetic pronounciations of words like iglesia, tejano, and churros.