Scan barcode
carlisajc's review against another edition
5.0
GARY PAULSEN REQUIRMENT
This book is about two girls, Rosa and Traci. Rosa is a 14-year-old illegal immigrant in Texas, working at night in the streets as a prostitute in order to send money home to her mother. Traci is a 14-year-old bleached-blonde beauty queen in the same Texas city as Rosa, whose mother primes her everyday to be perfect and look perfect...because that is how she will succeed in life. These girls' lives intersect for a brief moment to see how truly similar they are.
This book was shockingly beautiful. It's in a really interesting format, where one side is in English and then you flip the book over and it's the same story but in Spanish. I kind of loved this. The point of the book was to see how, despite how different these two girls are, they are also kind of the same. Like, you flip the book over and though it's different, it's the same book.
Each side is 65 pages. I read it in less than an hour, but despite the length it makes an impact on you. To realize that those people you may look down upon (consciously or not) are not all that different than you. Birth is circumstantial.
Favorite Quote: "Half a second, a heartbeat—literally a heartbeat. One thump. Traci's eyes locked onto the girl's eyes, held, fixed, caught , and she knew everything. Knew that the girl was a Mexican, was her age, was illegal, was selling her body and was totally, completely terrified.
We, Traci thought.
Just that at first, in the first instant.
We are. . .
We are the same."
This book is about two girls, Rosa and Traci. Rosa is a 14-year-old illegal immigrant in Texas, working at night in the streets as a prostitute in order to send money home to her mother. Traci is a 14-year-old bleached-blonde beauty queen in the same Texas city as Rosa, whose mother primes her everyday to be perfect and look perfect...because that is how she will succeed in life. These girls' lives intersect for a brief moment to see how truly similar they are.
This book was shockingly beautiful. It's in a really interesting format, where one side is in English and then you flip the book over and it's the same story but in Spanish. I kind of loved this. The point of the book was to see how, despite how different these two girls are, they are also kind of the same. Like, you flip the book over and though it's different, it's the same book.
Each side is 65 pages. I read it in less than an hour, but despite the length it makes an impact on you. To realize that those people you may look down upon (consciously or not) are not all that different than you. Birth is circumstantial.
Favorite Quote: "Half a second, a heartbeat—literally a heartbeat. One thump. Traci's eyes locked onto the girl's eyes, held, fixed, caught , and she knew everything. Knew that the girl was a Mexican, was her age, was illegal, was selling her body and was totally, completely terrified.
We, Traci thought.
Just that at first, in the first instant.
We are. . .
We are the same."
gnarltooth's review against another edition
4.0
i read this book in high school after my best friend at the time told me about it. i didn't fully understand it then. now, years later, i kept having these occurrences where i couldn't remember what book i was remembering; all i could remember was a young girl, prostitution, and the virgin mary and baby jesus (and that it could be read from both directions). i asked my friend if she could remember what book i was thinking of, but she had no memory of it. so i searched for it. on and off. and then finally, i found it: this book.
after finishing it now, i am grateful that i could find the book. still, i'm left with the aftertaste on my tongue of - but that can't be it! please, that can't be the end of the story!
and maybe that's the tragedy of this little book. it leaves you wishing for a different reality.
after finishing it now, i am grateful that i could find the book. still, i'm left with the aftertaste on my tongue of - but that can't be it! please, that can't be the end of the story!
and maybe that's the tragedy of this little book. it leaves you wishing for a different reality.
lorathelibrarian's review against another edition
1.0
This book was extremely short and had very little, if any plot. It was told in two voices, flipping back and forth between Rosa, an illegal immigrant/child prostitute, and Traci, a vain cheerleader. It was filled with stereotypes and as far as I can tell has very little value in the literary world. It's only redeeming quality is that in one volume it tells the story in both English and Spanish. At the most it might be used as a language teaching tool.
noodleloops's review
1.0
I understand the struggles of both of the girls but what was the point? The climax happened at the end and there was no resolution.
More...