Look Both Ways in the Barrio Blanco

With humor and sensitivity, a debut novelist explores the coming of age of a girl caught between two cultures as she finds the courage to forge a new destiny.

'Miss, will you be my Amiga?' Amiga means 'friend' in Spanish, but at the youth center, it meant a lady to take you places. I never asked myself if two people as different as Miss and me could ever really be amigas.

When Jacinta Juarez is paired with a rich, famous mentor, she is swept away from the diapers and dishes of her own boring life into a world of new experiences. But crossing la linea into Miss's world is scary. Half of Jacinta aches for the comfort of Mamá and the familiar safety of the barrio, while the other half longs to embrace a future that offers more than cleaning stuff for white people.

When her family is torn apart, Jacinta needs to bring the two halves of herself together to win back everything she holds dear. Can she channel the power she's gained from Miss and the strength she's inherited from Mamá to save her shattered home life?