This book was really surprising. I wasn't expecting that one of the Garza sisters' was going to fall deeply in love with someone she had barely just met! They are both in a mariachi group at their high schools. Though she doesn't know how to get his attention so her grandmas' help her out and they tell her that she should take him a serenade. Alexis is not so sure if she should take her crush a serenade because her mariachi group was not sounding so great, and they had barely started so she wasn't so convinced about the serenade. After weeks later she had finally decided to take him the serenade, but she asked her cousin Santiago to record the song so her teammates could just pretend to be playing their instruments. Throughout the book Alexis Garza goes though lots of emotions and problems but then after a long time she realizes that maybe falling in love was just to difficult for her and wasn't her thing.
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I believe the author wants me to learn from this reading that back then it wasn’t easy to have a job and the only job you could get was to work in the fields because you didn’t come to the U.S illegally. “Here you’ll find work picking strawberries. (page 5)” Another thing that wasn’t easy was crossing the border you would have to contact someone that could help you cross the border. “A few minutes later, we were picked up by a woman whom Papa had contacted in Mexicali, she had promised to pick us up in her car and drive us, for a fee, to a place where we could find work (page 4)”
The character Panchito reminds me of myself back when I was in 1st grade when I came to California from Mexico not knowing English. My first day in the 1st grade was not easy I felt embarrassed, shy, nervous, and frustrated. For me learning English was not easy it was really difficult and when I tried to say something in English my classmates would make fun of me or would point at me and make fun of me. From that day on in the mornings my mom would wake me up and I would cry because I didn’t want to go to school because I knew my classmates would laugh at me, I cried for about 2 months not wanting to go to school. I know the struggle and how it feels not knowing English. When I was in 2nd grade I was a little more better with speaking English yet people would still laugh at me. I tried not to give up and I passed 2nd grade knowing English more and speaking it better than before.
In the chapter Christmas Gift is where I started liking the book. From that chapter what I liked was that the character Panchito and his brothers did not complain about what they had gotten for Christmas so then I started liking the book more as I read and was surprised for all the stuff and struggle his family and him went through.
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The character Fabiola Garza is a nice, wonderful, and caring girl. Though she be a better character if she could stand up for her self. Her two grandmas and her younger sister write a letter to a T.V show, so Fabiola could have her quince.
Fabiola is fourteen years old and is about to turn fifteen. She doesn't want a quince she wanted to have a trip to New York City with her best friend. At school she was talking about how her family wants her to have her quince and she doesn't she wants her trip. A sassy girl named Melodee heard what Fabi was talking about and she got in it and said "Lets do a dare" and Fabi didn't answer and Melodee kept talking and said "from us two who ever has the best quince will not be bugged and who has a bad quince will have to rape their head". One of Fabi's friend said yes to the dare Melodee made. Once her family knew about it her grandmas and her sister wrote this letter to Quince Dream a T.V show.
I learned from this book that its better to tell the truth in the beginning instead of waiting a long time afterwards. If we don't tell the truth in the beginning we could have problems and struggle to get out from them.
I really recommend this book its really good. Its interesting how Fabi struggles and goes through so many stuff to have her quince be perfect.
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