Linda Lowery

Mexican History, Spanish Phases, what Mexico really looks and feels like when living there, and the adventures of a 12 yr. Old girl from Kalamazoo Michigan. How much more could you ask for to capture the interest of middle school readers?

Linda Lowry had done an excellent job of showing Mexico through the eyes of this young girl with all the colors, scents, and sounds that happen in a small Mexican town that she has moved into with her eccentric Grandma. Haley Margaret “Margarita” has to show more make a quick transition from Kalamazoo to San Miguel when her father leaves the family, and her mother has a nervous breakdown. The last place she wants to be is Mexico with a Grandma that she really doesn’t know that well. Little does she know how much her life will change, and how she will fall in love with the culture, colors, and the Mexican people. She makes friends almost immediately with the next-door neighbor, Lili. Her Grandma has wonderful stucco, round three-story house that is right out of the fairytales. There is a bit of a mystery woven into the story, but really the engaging aspect is the portrayal of how the people of San Miguel live, how they celebrate their culture and the beauty of the land.

I think all kids will benefit from this beautiful depiction of Mexico. It will make children from that land feel a new pride and make children here want to experience the adventure of travel as well. Ms. Lowry also handles the discussion of migrant farm workers from Mexico with a lot of heart and understanding and a perspective that students from the U. S. may not have heard before. I will highly recommend this book to all my middle school students. show less

Lowery, Linda. Truth and Salsa. Atlanta, GA: Peachtree Publishers, 2009 (multicultural: realistic fiction)

Written for children in grades 4-7, Linda Lowery’s Truth and Salsa is an excellent way to introduce children to elements of Mexican culture while, at the same time, exposing children to the unfortunate but common experience of a child dealing with a broken family. When the parents of 12 year old Hayley Flynn (the main character) separate, she’s sent to live in Mexico with her show more grandmother. She makes friends with a girl named Lili, and they go on to have a series of exciting experiences, including solving a mystery about a local ghost ('la fantasma'), and being cast as extras in a Hollywood movie. The story is actually very realistic and so are the characters. Lowery does a fantastic job describing the cultural scenery and local town festivals. When the main character Hayley discovers that the villagers who work in the U.S. cannot pay their way back home to Mexico, she writes a bunch of emails to help fix the situation. In the end, the villagers finally reunite with their family members. In this way the story also exposes children to the struggles of many Mexican immigrants who commonly migrate to the states in order to find work to support their families at home. The story is especially beneficial for young girls who will be able to identify with Hayley’s feelings as a young girl who, although she struggles with the pain of her broken family, nevertheless manages to accomplish much good in behalf of others. show less

The Spell of the Winter Wizard is a children's, middle grade choose-your-own-adventure stylel book that is Number 11 in the Endless Quest series. It is a Dungeons and Dragons Adventures book also, which is what caught my attention when it landed in our Little Free Library. I'm a latecomer to Dungeons and Dragons and trying to learn the basics of it, thanks to my husband. Even as an older adult, I thoroughly enjoyed this adventurous quest! It had all the elements of a fairy tale and oh, so show more much magic! The path I initially chose was pretty mellow and just turned the bad guy, the wizard of winter, into a flower and saving my stepfather, the good wizard. My character is a young girl whose stepfather good wizard has just been whisked off by the evil wizard of winter and my cat has been turned into a reindeer.

After my initial chosen adventure, I went back and read through the entire book, with all of the various outcomes. The author's imagination is vast and the book contains talking clams who sail boats and trees who bleed when their limbs are cut off, and many, many other creative and magical creatures throughout. The situations seem endless. Many end in doom and death, but hopefully you choose correctly and wind up with a happy ending! show less

An engaging, simple story with a slightly overhanded romance. The choices are all guided so that one can easily make all the right choices which perhaps makes the story feel more natural and less jarring, less lucky. The world certainly feels bigger and left me wanting more (in a good way). The romance plays prominently throughout the story though there is never anything questionable (butt shots, lusting, sexual tension, etc.)
The earliest I’d pull this out, is for a 2nd-3rd grade reader show more that is ready for some romantic themes. show less