Hispanic teens will enjoy reading about their heritage in this book, but all readers will see themselves in the characters and experience the lessons learned in the story. Like Sofia, many teens are interested in going out into an unknown world and finding their way, finding a path that no one in their family as taken before. Others, like Berta, love the security and familiarity of the old neighborhood and wish to stay there and raise their own children in the same manner that they were raised.
Sofia experiences several conflicts throughout the novel. The story begins with Berta and Sofia continuously fighting over chocolate bars and cascarones and evolves into Berta growing up and maturing more quickly than Sofia. Sofia does not understand Berta’s interest in the “sappy charro movies” that they both had been making fun of no long before. Sofia also conflicts with the new setting of her boarding school. Sofia is one of few Mexican American students at the school, is Catholic, and not rich. Terry loves to point out these facts and even goes so far as to steal her home altar materials and puts them in the chapel for all to see. Fortunately, her roommate Brooke stands up against Terry and everything works out.
Readers will especially enjoy that Sofia does realize her father’s dream by graduating from Harvard, just like JFK.
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