Eve Bunting takes her readers on journey with a Mexican family going home for Christmas. The text she uses is elegantly written. Through the feelings expressed by Carlos and his family you get a real sense of the Mexican culture and the importance of family. David Diaz's illustrations lead you into the journey with Carlos and his family. With the use of collaged background and inset illustrations the pages come alive. The text of Bunting and the illustrations of Diaz give you the sense of being there. This is a book that a child of any age would enjoy.

This book is very touching...it sensitively portrays the sacrafices Mexican immigrants have to make to move to America for their children to have a better life. Very well done themes of parental love, long car trips, the sadness of leaving one's home country, sibling realtionships, husband and wife being romantic (tasteful and age-appropriate), and a child's growing understanding of the complexities of life. Buy and read it to every child (and adult) you know.

This story is well told, with a nice pace and sense of language. Diaz is up to his usual standards, creating a colorful world that you just want to hop right into. Judge this book by its cover - it's beautiful!

Nilda, written by Nicholasa Mohr is set in the early 1940's. It details the life of a little Puerto Rican girl who lives in a poor neighborhood in New York City that she she calls the "Barrio". Nilda deals with many of life's problems including racism, death, relationships and many more. Race is a fairly large issue for Nilda. Nilda learns and matures greatly throughout this book. Travel through the life and eyes of Nilda as she tries to deal with her crazy family. Her family includes her step dad Emilio, her mother Lydia, her great Aunt Delia, her oldest brother Jimmy, Victor, Paul, and finally Frankie. Nilda is the youngest. Nicholasa's writingis very detailed without being overly specific. Nicholasa uses simple words and phrases to make the reader understand, yet the images she portrays are unbelievabe. The imagination of a young mind such as Nilda made this book a refreshing read that I thoroughly enjoyed. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who likes biographies.

Finally, I get to read a young adult coming-of-age book that doesn't pretend to be anything it isn't! It isn't a grandiose book of romance and drugs and wonder, with the teenager becoming a hero or tragic hero. It's just a simple story of a poor New York born Puerto Rican girl hitting her adolescence during WWII, a story of love, pain, fear, discrimination, poverty, abuse, narrow-minded immigrants, relationship problems, puberty, desire for upward mobility ' but none of it told in the sensational or overly dramatic way of so many young adult books. It's simple, to the point, discreet. It reminds me of that statement some famous movie director said about another director: 'He showed us more with a closed door than most directors do with an open zipper.' It was a book I could enjoy. It didn't have a strong plot, but it had powerful flesh-and-blood character with hearts and desires. I would say that the main character struck me as depressed, and actually, you might say most or all of the people in the book ' or perhaps the culture at the time ' walked around in a cloud of low-level depression.

Although I gave the book five stars, it wasn't the kind of book that sets stars blazing in the sky. It was just a no-nonsense and no-frills portrayal of a time, a place, and a culture' I would whole-heartedly recommend it.

The book Nilda was an excellent book that touched right through to me. The vivid descriptions of each and every scene in the book was very helpful to the reader to understand the book better and to feel that you are really inside the story. The way Nicholasa Mohr described the little Puerto Rican girl Nilda's feelings was very interesting, Nicolasa went straight to the little girl's heart and told everything. Overall, this is an exceptional story about hardship and discrimination that could be faced by everyday people.

I really liked both books that I had to read. I really got into them quickly, because they were detailed very well and over all written very good.

Felita is the main character and she is a hispanic girl living in NYC. She is nine years old and she loves to hang out with her friends. Her family is moving and they move to an all white German and Irish section of town. They get discriminated all the time and even her brother gets beaten up, so they decide to go back to their original neighborhood. It explains how she works through her problems with the help of her family. In the second book (Going Home), Felita is now 11 years old and her family is going to Puerto Rico. That is where they come from. She is allowed to stay there the whole summer with ther uncle and she discovers the pains and pleasures of being there.

I would recommend these books for anyone willing to learn about the life of someone of a different culture. They are great for all reading ages and you even learn a little spanish.

This book is so great,what the authour wrote about Felita just like what had real happened to himself.And I like the author that add in the scenes about the Felita and Vinny had been loved each other, and when Felita went to P.R that the fights with the the people born in P.R. This is a really good book.

My class loved it. The class is well below reading level and despite the difficult words they were motivated to find out what happened next to Jaime. They had empathy for him being a new student unable to speak the language because at one point my students were there. The descriptions and characters were so real, yet their was this imagination piece which kept them going. It led to many discussions about feelings, new students, frustration, and confusion. This was the fastest book they read all year.

Having grown up in the bronx an hispanic female, I felt much of the pain that Ms. Mohr describes in her book. I wish more hispanic authors would bare their souls in their literature

Definitely a book that all women (whether PRican, Mexican, from any Latin American country) can relate to. I am Puerto Rican and all the stories can be related to our culture in one aspect or another.... I enjoyed these stories very much and would love to give to my daughter to read; however, she is still too young (only 11) and some are too depicting for her age. I hope to read more of her works... Excellent style, wonderful descriptions and so interesting and captivating.

In this book, Ms. Mohr gets at the heart of Puerto Rican pride with the touching story of a young girl sent to the mainland, so her family on the island of Puerto Rico won't be so burdened financially. Evelina Lopez is 11 years old at the start of the story. She is saying her good-byes to her mother and two sisters. She is leaving to live with her aunt and uncle in New York during the Depression Era. Evelina faces this event with great courage, albeit with great sorrow at having to leave her family. When she gets to New York, her aunt and uncle greet her and she is taken to their home and shown her room. The school year has begun and soon Evelina is enrolled and attending her first classes in English. She is smart and learns quickly. She has run-ins with some girls but handles herself well and makes friends easily. Evelina is a doer. She has a clear way of seeing things and acts on her beliefs. She is strong, fair, helpful, and good. She figures out a way to get food for many neighbors who are too proud to accept charity. During this time of great hardship, Evelina is a symbol of hope. I would like to have met Evelina Lopez. Her life seems to have been an inspiration.

Although I agree that this portrays very moving look at the Bronx in a way that brings it to life for the outsider, this is NOT a book for the school market! It opens too many issues for moral controversy.

Even though this book is in the young adult section, I, a mature 23 year old read it and loved it. The short stories are well written and entertaining, and each story is different from the last. The book can be finished within a few hours, so its a great book for long car rides, days at the beach, or for those times when there's nothing good on T.V.

Marvelously written, characters with flesh-and-blood aliveness, fantastic insights into people and culture and situations, very simply and clearly yet subtly written (with great sharp transitions - she doesn't waste your time!), and so emotionally connected - this book brought tears to my eyes several times...which is why I'm recommending it so highly. Most books can't pull that off.

And although at times it is an uplifting book, mostly it's really a sad book, a book about pain and heartache and people who can't fit it, who fall between the cracks, who are rejected by American society at large, and at times their own cultures and families. It so beautifully depicts people living compromised lives, yet living nonetheless and making the best of it. It offers a great entrance into a time and place that I don't often get much contact with. Thank you, Nicholasa (and I loved your book Nilda also)!

Felita introduces the reader to a strong and loving Puerto Rican family living in New York. The characters are well-developed and interesting. The plot is interesting enough to engage young readers. The book is recommended for children 4-8, but I feel it is more appropriate for children comfortable with chapter books. I realize that age levels are subjective, but I believe that a 4-8 year old would be better off sharing this book with a caregiver or teacher. The book deals with racism and death of a loved one, and for these reasons I feel that it makes an appropriate shared reading book. It is important to offer children a chance to discuss Felita's experience with racism. Without open discussion,it could lead the reader to believe that all Irish and Germans are racist. In this story Felita's beloved grandmother dies, but the death is dealt with in three pages at the end of the story. I don't think given the care taken to describe the relationship between Felita and her grandmother, this ending does the characters or subject justice.

Felita is a story of a Puerto Rican family struggling to give their children a brighter future in the face of racism and prejudice. I think these are important issues that need to be addressed with children, in the classroom or in the home. I found it especially poignant that the children immediately accepted Felita as a friend, but it was the adults that rejected differences and cultivated the prejudice in their children. I am confused about the previous review stating that this book is appropriate for chidren ages 4-8. The back of the book states that it is for children 7-11 years of age and the top of this page states that it is appropriate for ages 9-12. Children of these ages should become familiar with short chapter books such as this one. Overall, I found this to be a good addition to a culturally diverse selection of childrens books-- one perspective to add to the many that make up life in the United States.