Horn Book
(c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

This sequel to The Circuit follows the pattern of the coming-of-age novel. Francisco and his family obtain visas that allow them to enter and stay in the United States without fear of deportation. Like its hero, the book's pace is steady and deliberate, relying upon natural development rather than theatrics. For all its recounting of deprivation, this is a hopeful book, told with rectitude and dignity. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

Horn Book
(c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(Middle School, High School) While retaining the immediate and graceful prose of JimTnez's short-story cycle The Circuit, this sequel follows the more traditional pattern of the coming-of-age novel. Beginning just where The Circuit ended, the memoir finds Francisco and his family obtaining visas that will finally allow them to enter and stay in the United States without fear of deportation. The time is the late 1950s, and at first, Francisco and his older brother Roberto return to Santa Maria alone, where they go back to school (eighth grade for Francisco, eleventh for Roberto) and work, thinning lettuce, picking carrots, and cleaning the high school on weekends. The eventual return of the rest of the family is a happy event, but it also raises tensions as Francisco and Roberto begin to live and dream outside the boundaries determined by their loving but demanding father, himself increasingly bitter as decades of farm work take their toll. For all its recounting of deprivation, this is a hopeful book, told with rectitude and dignity. Like its hero, the book's pace is steady and deliberate, relying upon natural development rather than theatrics or melodrama to achieve its goals. By the standards of contemporary YA realism, Francisco and his story are remarkably well behaved, but one never senses over-neatening by the author; rather, his truth to his teenaged self demonstrates a respect that embraces the reader as well. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.