ESTRELLA'S QUINCEAÑERA

While her mother sees it as tradition, Estrella believes a quinceañera, the Mexican custom of celebrating a girl’s 15th birthday, is “just a lame party with cheesy music and puffy princess dresses.” How can she even think about a quince party when she has ignored her San Jose barrio homegirls since winning a scholarship to a prestigious private school? And her new, affluent friends, who know her simply as “Star,” would mock the mariachi band and hideous orange dress. Giving up her Mexican traditions would be easier if she weren’t attracted to Speedy, a boy with strong ties to their community. Just when Estrella is about to lose all her friends and family, she plans the quinceañera that she wants and realizes that she doesn’t have to choose between two cultures but can have the best of both worlds. Newcomer Alegría introduces each chapter with a Spanish word and its conversational definition, which she deftly weaves into her satisfying depiction of contemporary Mexican-American society. Combine this story with Nancy Osa’s Cuba 15 (2003), a novel with similar themes. (Fiction. YA)