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The Street Belongs to Us

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

In 1984 Los Angeles, Alex is a tomboy who would rather wear her hair short and her older brother's hand-me-downs, and Wolf is a troubled kid who's been wearing the same soldier's uniform ever since his mom died. They temporarily set their worries aside when their street is torn up by digging machines and transformed into a muddy wonderland with endless possibilities. To pass the hot summer days, the two best friends seize the opportunity to turn Muscatel Avenue into a battleground and launch a gleeful street war against the rival neighborhood kids.

But when Alex and Wolf make their headquarters inside a deep trench, Alex's grandmother warns them that some buried things want to be found and some want to stay hidden and forgotten. Although she has the wisdom of someone who has survived the Mexican Revolution, the Spanish Flu, and immigration to a new country, the kids ignore her warning, unearthing more than they bargained for.

This exuberant novel perfectly capture the summers of youth, when anything feels possible and an adventure is always around the corner. Bursting with life and feeling, both the people and the land come alive in a tale interwoven with Mexican-American identity, experience, and history. The Street Belongs to Us is a story of family, friendship, and unconditional acceptance, even when it breaks your heart.

This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. A Simple book with few images, which is defined with accessible structural markup. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order and semantic structure.

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    • Booklist

      Starred review from May 15, 2021
      Grades 4-6 *Starred Review* In the summer of 1984 Los Angeles, construction work on their street is a cause for celebration for Alex and her best friend, Wolf. Alex is a girl terrified of becoming a woman. She would rather wear her hair short and her brother's old clothes than anything smacking of girlishness. Wolf is dealing with his mom's death as if he's a warrior, which colors his rage as the fort he and Alex built is invaded by other neighborhood kids. Mud slinging, trench digging, and learning about secrets infuse this snapshot of innocence and emotional growth as Alex figures out how to contact her dad, who abandoned their family a few years before. It is her abuela's tales of the Mexican Revolution and of hiding and finding treasures that inspires Alex to run away with Wolf--who might be in trouble with the law for his anger issues--on a quest to bring her father home. Even disappointment doesn't deter Alex from being herself among a warm, loving family that accepts her as she is--a girl questioning gender--and living in a torn-up neighborhood where people throw mud at each other but can still ultimately come together. A terrific summer read with appealing cartoon drawings interspersed throughout. Godoy's illustrations complement Jim�nez's warm prose, lending a lightness to Alex's story of a pivotal summer.

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Kirkus

      April 15, 2021
      Tween best friends spend a summer waging a friendly street battle in 1980s Los Angeles. Alex Richardson-Salazar lives on Muscatel Avenue, a street that abuts a freeway and Rosemead, a debris basin they call "the wash." When the city begins to dig up the street to build sidewalks during the summer of 1984, tomboyish Alex and her best friend, Wolf McCann, decide the muddy trenches would make an ideal place to play. Wolf, who calls himself a soldier and has worn a camouflage uniform every day since his mother died two years earlier, helps Alex wage a lively war, using mud and water balloons as ammunition against the boys of the neighborhood. One day they discover a buried document referencing Aztl�n, in the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico. They consult Alex's tiny, fierce Nana, and she is happy to tell the kids stories about everything from surviving the Mexican Revolution to the rise of Los Angeles' Chicano movement. The narrative's touching intergenerational relationships combined with the historical commentary are reminiscent of Meg Medina and Ruth Behar. The ample black-and-white illustrations skillfully capture the characters' personalities, offering a cheerful glimpse into times when people used phones with cords and children engaged in hours of elaborate, outdoor play. Alex is White/Mexican; Wolf is cued as White, and the neighborhood is racially and ethnically diverse. A thoughtful and poignant look at friendship, loss, and exploring cultural heritage. (Historical fiction. 9-12)

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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