Alegria, Malin. Sofi Mendoza's guide to getting lost in Mexico.

ALEGRIA, Malin. Soft Mendoza's guide to getting lost in Mexico. Simon & Schuster. 304p. c2007. 0-689-87811-7. $15.99. JS

Sofi Mendoza is the typical suburban high school student. She talks to friends on the computer and complains that her parents are too strict. She is planning on going to UCLA after high school graduation and has a crush on Nick Hoffman, the blue-eyed, blond captain of the high school wrestling team. When her friends plan a Memorial Day weekend in Tijuana, Mexico, she plans on telling a lie to her parents in order to join them and Nick for some private parties and sandy beaches. Soft is the daughter of Mexican immigrants, but she doesn't speak Spanish and she doesn't have the correct paperwork that would allow her to come back across the border. At the end of the weekend, she is unable to return home and must stay with relatives she has never met while her parents sort out the difficulties with her documents. She moves in with her Aunt Luisa and her family in a tiny house very different from the suburban home in which she had grown up. She develops a relationship with her cousin Yesenia, who helps her to find a footing in a strange culture. Andres, a hotel employee her American friends had mistreated, turns out to be a more trustworthy love interest than Nick could ever have been. Finally, her family is able to get Soft the documentation she needs to return home. Loosely based on a real incident, the novel highlights the difficulty that such border children have. Neither Mexican nor American, Soft must come to terms with who she really is and what she has to offer in both cultures. Janis Flint-Ferguson, Assoc. Prof., English, Gordon College, Wenham, MA

J--Recommended for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers.

S--Recommended for senior high school students.