This is the first title I have read by De la Pena, and regrettably so. The flow of the novel was so easy to follow and I imagine how a teenager would be able to relate to the various character types and sub-plots within the novel. The struggle of figuring out who you are and what your place is in your world is something that I think all teenagers go through at some level. The feeling of being almost stuck between two worlds or cultures is something I know a lot of adolescents are going through as well.

The reader has to remember the struggle that was present in the years leading up to the summer - parents separating, witnessing violence at the hands of a loved one, feelings of inadequacy, a loss of control. The summer was when the shift happened for Danny. For some readers that shift might still be years away, or it might be a summer away. I think this novel is full of moments that allow the reader to connect with Danny and his pain, and at the same time encourages the reader to remain hopeful for a positive change that could be right around the corner.

I would recommend this book to a more mature reader, perhaps thirteen or older. The novel has some slang, profanity, violence, and mild sexual content. I would definitely recommend teachers of younger grades select excerpts from the novel and work with those. Students of all ages struggle with figuring out who they are and where they fit in, and Danny is an extremely easy character to relate to.

As a possible activity, I would use an excerpt from pages 89-90 to really dive into character analysis and inferencing. "It all hits him as he stares at a half-finished love letter. No matter how many words he defines or love letters he composes or pieces of junk mail he reads aloud to his grandma while she waters spider plants potted in old Folgers coffee cans he’ll still be a hundred miles away from who he’s supposed to be.

He’s Mexican, because his family’s Mexican, but he’s not really Mexican. His skin is dark like his grandma’s sweet coffee, but his insides are as pale as the cream she mixes in.

Danny holds the pencil above the paper, thinking: I’m a white boy among Mexicans, and a Mexican among white boys.

He digs his fingernails into his arm. Looks up to see if anybody’s watching him. They aren’t.

Sometimes he’ll just watch his family interact in the living room.....

And it makes him so happy just watching. Doesn’t even matter that he’s not really involved. Because what he’s doing is getting a sneak peek inside his dad’s life". (89-90).

I would have students make inferences about Danny's feelings towards his family based on his narration on these pages. I would also ask them to pull out some of the more profound statements and dissect them. What could Danny mean by those statements, and have they ever felt like that? I would then ask them to illustrate the scene. Visualization is a powerful tool when it comes to comprehension so I like to utilize it every chance I get.

Matt de la Pena as written several over books, young adult novels to picture books. He has also been the recipient of several awards and recognitions to include the Newberry-Caldecott Award and the ALA-YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers.

This is a link to his web page linking all his books, to include Ball Don't Lie, Love, and Last Stop on Market Street.

This is a video to a book trailer for Mexican WhiteBoy