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Tortilla Sun (2010)

by Jennifer Cervantes(Favorite Author)

3.89 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0811870154 (ISBN13: 9780811870153)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Chronicle Books

review 1: Twelve-year-old Izzy and her mother have moved from one San Diego neighborhood to another several times during her short life. Consequently, Izzy feels rather rootless and disconnected from the rest of her family. She happens upon a baseball with a couple of words on it, and wonders what the words, probably written by her father, mean. When her mother must spend the summer in Costa Rica for her studies, she sends Izzy to stay with her maternal grandmother in New Mexico. Izzy is resentful and confused at first, but eventually, she finds a place for herself there, surrounded by neighbors and new friends and memories of her father. The author captures the flavors of New Mexico perfectly while also creating a likeable protagonist in Izzy. While Izzy tries to write stories, rel... moreying on note cards as beginning points, she never seems to get any further than the start of those stories. While the ending seems a bit rushed and the change in Izzy's mother not unexpected, I still enjoyed Izzy's journey of self-discovery. In some respects this title brings to mind the books of Laura Resau in which her main characters find themselves while being immersed in a culture that is completely foreign to them. I wondered how it was that Izzy's mother managed to erase so thoroughly any connections to her own past. Middle grade readers will enjoy the hints of budding romance and Maggie, Izzy's new little sister, and the antics of Frida, the cat that behaves like a dog.
review 2: This book is so flavorful with descriptions of the lively foods of a Mexican village that this little girl is visiting with her mother. She is determined to find out a secret of a word on a baseball that she finds, but instead she finds so much more than that. This book does a great job of describing the culture in Mexico and makes it come to life. Children will love this book and the pictures that go with it. less

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