Confetti Girl

Lina Flores loves sports and science, has an obsession with socks, and might have a crush on classmate Luis. Lina, with the help of her friend Vanessa, is trying to survive the drama of middle school, as well as help her father cope with the recent loss of her mother.

This book is great for any kinda of girl who likes eggs and or confetti! Here is something you can do at home: Buy: Confetti, eggs! At home you take all the yolk out and put the confetti in the eggs. When your at an event you can take them and crack them on peoples heads! They are called cascarones!! have fun reading this book! ( )

I loved this book so much i really felt like i could relate to her. ( )

The first thing I noticed as did several of my students was the cover. I have a seventh grade student who wears socks similar to the ones on the cover. She keeps the pant legs rolled up so everyone can view her unusual socks each day. Lina could be one of my students. I have a young girl whose father is fluent in English and expects so much from her. She struggles with the English and gets frustrated. It is as if her father just doesn’t get it. Lina sees her father as hiding in the books he reads as an escape from the pain and grief of losing his wife. This is a crucial time in Lina’s life. A time when life changes, friendships change and a girl needs to know how to deal with these changes. I can think of at least five girls I will recommend this book to. It is very important to me to put books in their hands with characters they can identify with. ( )

Confetti Girl
By Diana López
Little, Brown and Company, Books for Young Readers NY 2009
ISBN 978-0-316-02955-1
Apolonia Flores is the hero of this book. Her father says about her first name, “It’s the girl form of Apollo. He was the god of the sun. Get it? It’s my way of calling you a sunflower.” Parents! What can a teen do with them? Gratefully, everyone calls her Lina. Vanessa is her best friend, who lives across the street.

Thankfully this book is not about gangs, migrant farm workers, or crossing the border. It’s a regular book about a regular family in a regular neighborhood where the girls go to a regular school with regular problems. Do I seem a bit obsessed with regular? This is a beautiful story of a girl who has lost her mother and needs her father. Her father in his grief has immersed himself into books. How does she go about reaching through those books to her father, who holds them up in front of him? She thinks: “I see a body, a neck, and a book where his face should be.”

I enjoyed this book so much because the writing was good and the story was so real. Lina struggles with Vanessa’s breaking away from their best friend status to date a boy. The girls plot to help Vanessa’s mom. Lina grapples with how to approach a boy she likes and isn’t sure whether he likes her. The whole issue of losing a parent is dealt with in two ways: lost by death and lost by divorce. The plot of this story is the generational age dilemma of any teen and their parents: how do you reach each other to an understanding of what each needs. The ending is hilarious and would make any therapist proud.

I had read The secret blog of Raisin Rodriguez : a novel / by Judy Goldschmidt and was so disappointed. Because the books attempts to make Raisin, just like any other girl. Seems the author created a character with no ethnic roots. I’m not talking about being a Pocho or not knowing or hiding that she is Latina. I mean the things that she worries about are just too white. With Lina, the author, Diana López, did a sensational job of presenting Lina in her environment with everyday teen problems and yet embracing her culture background. Nothing in the story was too heavy or pushed on you about culture. Even the whole discussion about cascarones was more about the girls’ story than about the history of cascarones.

I believe that the community, any and all of us, are in dire need of more books like Confetti Girl by Diana López. Stories that portray us as people with hurts, joys and loves, just like everyone else in the world in any skin color. I encourage you to rush out and buy this book. Because buying this book would show the world how proud we are of being Latino/a, of how much we support our Latino/a authors, and of how much we need and want “real” stories about ourselves doing life. Read and enjoy!

Jo Ann Hernández
BronzeWord1@yahoo.com
BronzeWord Latino Authors
http://authorslatino.com/wordpress ( )