| Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Pena My rating: 5 of 5 stars Matt de la Pena has been one of those authors that I have been meaning to read but kept putting him on the back burner. I was reminded of him because of the most recent banned book week and I heard how his books are banned in Arizona. Latin kids shouldn't read books where characters are struggling to identify themselves with their Latin and American roots. Did I just generalize? Yeah maybe... But truly its a damn shame to ban books featuring Latino kids as main characters where actually Latinos might read said books. Anyways, getting off my soap box and back to the book review. Big mistake for putting this book on the back burner. I really enjoyed it. I could identify with the characters and the language that was spoken. As the story went along the characters grew on me and I just kept rooting for them. I really sad that this book ended because I just wanted more. I wanted to know what else happens to them. Overall it was a great book and I plan on reading more from Matt de la Pena. I would recommend this book to my Hispanic friends who don't read many books where we are featured as the main characters. View all my reviews |
Fangirl moment!!! AHHHH! I got to meet Matt De La Pena at Blue Willow Bookshop an independent bookstore in Houston. As most of y'all know I was really nervous for today. I became the ulitmate fan girl. Seriously, I was ready an hour before I was to be picked up. You would have thought this was my first signing and I had no sense. on how to act. Anyways, we (My friend Amanda) arrived really early and got front row seats. Yeah we are dorks and we know it. My heart was beating so fast because I really wanted to ask a question but I really do not enjoy public speaking. My turn came up and I think I did pretty well. I asked about diversity in books. It went somewhere along the lines, "What would he say to writers who find it hard to write about characters that are diverse? " Matt de la Pena said, "Only write what you can write.." and "That you should be able to write the character you trying to write. Do it where you get all the subtleties because if you miss the subtleties, teen readers , they (can) smell a rat. They know when you messed up and your not getting it quite right." Well, I thought that was a great response and he also did an author reading of his newest book The Living. That was just awesome. I actually haven't read it yet but I can't wait to start it. I did read Mexican Whiteboy and freaking loved it. It was one of my top reads for 2014 and I highly recommend it. Check out my review below and let me know if you read any of Matt de la Pena's books.
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Sofia's bookshelf: read
This was a very cute adorable read. We've all seen those movies where the romantic leads pretending to be dating but are in fact falling for each other. Well as a chick-flick fan this book hit the right spot. Yeah the story-line was a t...
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2015
by Andy Weir
I don't know whether to give this book 4 or 5 stars. It was pretty damn good. My only complaint is that I got kinda lost in all of the space jargon. Seriously, I felt kinda dumb because everything sounded so smart that I'm just gonna as...
tagged:
2015 and nwh-bookclub
This year I'm planning on rereading some of my favorite books. I'm glad I started with one of my favorite authors. This book is still really good. This time I listen to the audio book instead of actually reading the book. My only complai...
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fave and 2015
by R.K. Ryals
“Love isn’t roses. It’s those little square caramels and a root beer from the gas station because he knows that’s your favorite snack. It’s watching a musical with you without groaning. It’s handing you your glasses at night because he k...
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2015, fantasy, nerdy, and 2015-reading-challenge
by Kay Kendall
I want to first start off that I got to meet the author at Houston author bash earlier this year. I was immediately drawn to the cover of this book. I just think it's a beautiful cover. This was the only physical book that I bought at t...
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houston-author-bash and 2014
About ME!I was born a long time ago in a hospital in Houston At least that's the story that was told to me. I can't recall these details so I can't say with 100% accuracy that its true. Archives
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