Far from Gringo Land - Hardcover

Edward Myers is the author of 20 books for adults and 12 for children, including Storyteller, published by Clarion Books  in July 2008, and two middle-grade adventure novels, Climb or Die and Hostage, published by Hyperion. He lives with his wife and two children near New York City.

Grade 8 Up—Rick is spending the summer before his senior year with family friends in Mexico to help them build a new house. He'll provide extra labor for the Romeros in exchange for room and board and a chance to improve his Spanish. The work is backbreaking, the construction project has its setbacks, and Rick has a tough time relating to his host family when both the language and culture are hard to decipher. A budding romance with a rich American teen, also visiting for the summer, takes his mind off his troubles. The premise of this story is promising for what it could do to advance cultural understanding, but a waffling Rick is not strong enough to take on the challenge and the Romeros come off as stereotypes. The third-person narration does little to draw readers in, with much of the story told and not shown. Rick's feeble attempts to help the Romeros through troubling times come off as self-centered and patronizing. Even the light romance, which is often related in stilted and confusing conversations between Rick and his paramour, isn't enough to make this story compelling.—Shawna Sherman, Hayward Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.