Working-class Latino teenagers cope with their families, hang out with offbeat friends and obnoxious acquaintances, yearn for dates, and deal with stray kisses in these 10 stories. The teens struggle to prove themselves, establish their own identities, and maintain self-respect in the midst of dilapidated schools, grimy neighborhoods, and hard-pressed single-parent households. The stories are sometimes funny, often poignant, and occasionally provocative. Spanish words and phrases, sprinkled throughout the stories, can usually be understood in context, but the appended glossary is helpful. The stories are laced with harsh, realistic observations and grungy, everyday details: A dead bird with a string of ants crawling from its eyes lay near a burger wrapper. This naturalistic style gives the stories a hard, unpleasant edge, but it also makes them vividly believable.

Soto's collection introduces a cross section of contemporary Mexican-American kids dealing with family, friendship, and first love. The tales generally feature convincing characterizations and offer some memorable images. Though the stories are rooted in Latino culture (Spanish words and phrases are defined at book's end), young teen readers will find that the emotions on display are pretty much universal.

Ten perceptive short stories give glimpses of everyday life and emotions among a variety of adolescent Latinos. With a range of tones from sad to joyful, the stories focus mostly on teens in working class families whose lives come alive through evocative details. Soto excels at getting into the minds of both boys and girls: a boy who gets his first kiss from a girl who mistakes him in the dark for someone else; an overweight girl looking for a first boyfriend; a wonderfully realized character who despairs of her uncouth family and seeks help from Miss Manners. While one story effectively if briefly explores the aftermath of a mother's death by accident, another humorously equates adolescent boys with chimps in their looks, actions and perception by adults. The realistic dialogue uses Spanish words in context, with a glossary at the back. Readers, Latino or not, have a good chance of seeing themselves and their feelings in these compelling stories. (Fiction. 11-14)

Gr 6-9-Ten original short stories about Mexican-American teens in central California. The fundamental theme of "needing help" is the common thread among the stories, which range from the satirical to the peculiar to the humorous to the sad. Sometimes the "help" is administered in unusual fashion or never quite arrives at all, and each character is left to puzzle the complexity and edginess of life. One young man learns that sometimes a person is really telling the truth, despite evidence to the opposite. Another deals with having a girl mistake him for her boyfriend in a dark area at a dance and accidentally bestow upon him unexpected first kisses. One girl mourns the loss of her mother and tries to find evidence of the woman's spirit in every creak of the house. Another laments her inability to play golf, even against a frail old lady. Still another teen wishes desperately to turn around her family's terrible manners. These interesting characters placed in unique situations, and the thought-provoking endings, compensate for intermittent awkwardness in the telling. The occasional insertion of Spanish words is done skillfully so that even non-Spanish speakers will understand all aspects of the stories, which are similar in style and tone to Soto's Petty Crimes (Harcourt, 1998).-Diane P. Tuccillo, City of Mesa Library, AZ Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.