Cubanita - Hardcover

Triana, Gaby

3.61

225 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060560207 ISBN 13: 9780060560201

Publisher: Rayo, 2005

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Summer just started, and already I can't wait to get out of here to begin my mother-free life at the University of Michigan in August. But until that happens, I'll be teaching art at Camp Anhinga, same as last year. I start tomorrow, and Mom is anything but thrilled. Surprise, surprise. If it weren't for my father, I'd never get to experience college away from home. I'd be stuck, taking classes locally, learning to cook and sew the holes in my brother's underwear on the side, cultivating my domestic skills as a back-up career. Because that's what a good cubanita does, you know, thinks of nothing but home. Yeah. Okay.

This is the story of Isabel D�az, a Cuban-American who would rather just be an American, period. A funny and romantic summer read, as well as a touching story about discovering your roots, cubanita proves we all have room in us to become more than who we think we are.

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About the Author:

GABY TRIANA is the author of the Haunted Florida series (Island of Bones, River of Ghosts, City of Spells), YA novels Wake the Hollow, Cakespell, and Summer of Yesterday, as well as a contributing author in the upcoming New Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Anthology (2020). Published with HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Entangled, Gaby has also ghostwritten 40+ novels for bestselling authors, won an IRA Teen Choice Award, ALA Best Paperback, and Hispanic Magazine's Good Reads Awards. She writes about ghosts, haunted places, and abandoned locations, and runs the witchy/horror blog, THE WITCH HAUNT. Gaby lives in Miami, FL with her family, dog Chloe, and four cats--Daisy, Mickey Meows, Paris, and the reformed thug/shooting survivor, Bowie.

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* Gr. 9-12. One great advantage in writing about one's own culture is the freedom to be irreverent. Triana, born in Miami to Cuban immigrants, takes advantage of the opportunity in a fast, hilarious, first-person narrative that focuses on Cuban American Isabel Diaz's coming-of-age. As with all good writing, the particulars of the story, the search for roots, and the conflicts in leaving home will speak to teens everywhere--not just those in immigrant families. At 17, Isabel struggles with hovering, overanxious Mami, who knows how to push the guilt buttons and won't learn proper English ("You'd think in twenty-six years, she could learn how to speak correctly"). Mami is sure that sexy, funny Andrew is nothing but trouble, but Isabel denies all the signs. The love interest and the truth about family help build a strong story, but the sentimental twists that allow Isabel to find and then leave home are not nearly as satisfying and fun as the insider's view of the community. Triana doesn't include a glossary; the Spanish is clear from the context, and as Isabel points out, the best idioms are not translatable anyway. Pair this with Nancy Osa's Cuba 15 (2003). Hazel Rochman
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