Under the Mesquite, Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Realistic fiction/Verse
It can be hard growing up in a big family. Lupita, a brilliant writer & high school student who moved to Texas from Mexico when she was six years old, has eight younger siblings, which means she has a lot of extra responsibility already – and that’s before her mother is diagnosed with a serious illness.
Before, Lupita had time to pursue her passions – theater and poetry – and hang out with her friends. Now that she’s in high school and feeling more confident about her bicultural life, she is beginning to grow into her all of her identities – as a writer, an actor, a college-bound student, a friend. But now that her mother is sick and her father is out of town taking care of her, it’s up to Lupita to hold her family together – and everything else falls by the wayside.
Lupita narrates her high school experience in verse – so in short poems – and incorporates words in Spanish (there’s a glossary in the back). It’s a quick read and a beautifully written story about love and family.