BECOMING NAOMI LEÓN

First-person narrator Naomi León Outlaw and her bright, physically lopsided little brother Owen feel safe in the routines of life in Lemon Grove, California, with great-grandmother Gram. Naomi, a soft-voiced list-maker and word-collector, is also a gifted soap-carver—something inherited, it turns out, from the Mexican father from whom she and Owen were separated as small children. The unexpected arrival of Naomi’s long-absent mother throws everything off balance. The troubled young woman’s difficulties threaten to overturn the security Gram has worked to provide for Naomi and Owen. With friends’ help, Gram takes the children to Oaxaca City to find their father and gain his support in her custody appeal. Here they are immersed in a world of warmth and friendship, where Naomi’s longing to meet the father she dimly remembers intensifies. The annual December radish-carving festival gives Naomi’s creativity a chance to shine and makes the perfect setting for a reunion. Naomi’s matter-of-fact narrative is suffused with her worries and hopes, along with her protective love for her brother and great-grandmother. Ryan’s sure-handed storytelling and affection for her characters convey a clear sense of Naomi’s triumph, as she becomes “who I was meant to be.” (Fiction. 10-14)