Truth and Salsa (review)

Twelve-year-old Hayley Flynn's year is full of changes—her dad leaves the family, her mom checks into a treatment center for depression, and Hayley is sent from Kalamazoo, Michigan to her grandmother's home in Mexico. With red-brown hair, freckles, and zero Mexican ancestry (her grandma just upped and moved there three years ago), Hayley is afraid she will stick out like a "red, white, and blue thumb." Nonetheless, Hayley enjoys an exciting summer living in her grandma's round "Rapunzel" house, meeting a new friend, landing a role as an extra in a made-for-TV movie, delving into fantasmas (ghosts) and family intrigue, and even managing to help some Mexican migrant workers in her home state of Michigan. While Lowery manages to infuse the story with lively zest, there is so much plot packed in that she can't possibly do justice to every storyline. Plot threads are never quite cohesively woven together, serious issues get little more than surface treatment, and extensive description of the sights, sounds, and festivals of Mexico resembles a guidebook tour rather than real immersion. This doesn't reach the standard of Polikoff's novel of cultural uprooting, Why Does the Coquí Sing? (BCCB 6/04), but itdoesoffer summer escape via good old-fashioned fun, and it may appeal to readers who want their own temporary stay in a tropical land with new friends and a dash of adventure.