A review by ljrinaldi
The Other Half of Happy by Rebecca Balcárcel
4.0
When you are half white and half of any other recognizable people, you will have a hard time fitting in in America. You are walking that line of two world. You want to be "normal", you want to be accepted by the other "normal" children.
Quijana is half American and half Guatemalan. Her parents did not speak Spanish to her, because they wanted her to fit in. And that was ok, for a while, until it wasn't, and she realized she could not speak to any of her Guatemalan relatives, and she felt left out, so much, that she decided she did not want to go to Guatemala at all.
This would be just a typical middle-school book about friendship, except it isn't. It is a story of being between two worlds. Of friends that also don't quite fit in, but fit in with themselves.
Lovely book. Highly recommended.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
Quijana is half American and half Guatemalan. Her parents did not speak Spanish to her, because they wanted her to fit in. And that was ok, for a while, until it wasn't, and she realized she could not speak to any of her Guatemalan relatives, and she felt left out, so much, that she decided she did not want to go to Guatemala at all.
This would be just a typical middle-school book about friendship, except it isn't. It is a story of being between two worlds. Of friends that also don't quite fit in, but fit in with themselves.
Lovely book. Highly recommended.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.