Cruz, Maria Colleen. Border crossing.

Arte Publico Press, Univ. of Houston. 122p. c2003. 1-55885-405-3. $9.95. J

Twelve-year-old Cesi decides to go to Tijuana in order to better understand her father. For years, Cesi has wondered why he isn't more forthcoming about his own youth and his half of her heritage. Her curiosity is bolstered by overheard snatches of conversations between her parents and her Spanish-speaking paternal grandmother, as well as by her discovery of photographs that seem to show a hardscrabble boyhood for her father. Determined to unearth understanding if not hard facts, she takes the train to San Diego and then the trolley to the border. Conveniently, she meets a boy about her age--but a more seasoned solo traveler-aboard the train and accepts his invitation to tag along with him as he visits his aunt in Tijuana. In a few short hours, Cesi has her money stolen, faces her racial prejudices, and discovers that her new friend is also a distant cousin. Reunited with her worried parents, she is taken to her father's boyhood home in Arizona, so she can see it for herself. While this story begins well and the action builds nicely through both flashbacks and Cesi's present trip across the border, there are a lot of coincidences for the reader to swallow whole, while actual resolution seems a bit sketchy. In fact, Cesi's father's past is never really explained at a level that would satisfy the average 12-year-old on such a mission. However, there is food for thought for middle school readers living in more homogenous communities than Cesi's: what does it mean to be bicultural in contemporary American society? As bibliotherapy, this book is a good conversation starter, but as story, it is the outline of a plot yet to be fully realized. Francisca Goldsmith, Teen Svcs., Berkeley P.L., Berkeley, CA