Maya's Divided World (Roosevelt High School (Paperback)) - Softcover

Velasquez, Gloria

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1558851313 ISBN 13: 9781558851313

Publisher: Arte Publico Press, 1995

Synopsis

Maya's well-ordered and productive highschool life receives an unwelcome jolt and begins to unravel when her parents announce their impending divorce. How Maya copes with this blow and the reaction of her friends and famiy make for engrossing reading.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 6-9?In this second installment set at Roosevelt High School, readers again meet Maya Gonzales, who is now a junior. The teen's perfect family life is shattered by her parent's divorce. Her father moves to San Francisco and Maya and her mother spend a miserable month with relatives in New Mexico. Then, back in school in Laguna, CA, the girl begins to drive her old friends away and takes up with a new, rough crowd. Ms. Martinez, the psychologist introduced in Juanita Fights the School Board (Pi?ata, 1994), again helps solve a young person's problems. As in that book, Velasquez uses the device of alternating narrative voices, which may confuse young people who are reading below level. The language is too "nice and prim" for contemporary teens, and Maya's reactions to events seem mild considering the changes she's going through. The mother's inability to see what is happening is not believable considering the amount of time the author spends trying to convince readers that the woman is super-intelligent. All in all, the characters do not come alive and the solutions are too pat. The concept for this series (stories about multicultural students in a contemporary high school) is great and is sorely needed, but more vitality needs to be put into the books if they are going to survive.?Kenneth E. Kowen, E.L. Furr Senior High School, Houston, TX
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Gr. 7-12. Maya's life seems charmed. She is attractive and a good student, with two successful parents and a nice house with all the amenities. When her father moves out and her parents announce they are getting divorced, she quite simply can't cope. Like her traditional grandmother, Maya blames her mother for putting her career before being a dutiful wife. Ashamed to tell her school friends what has happened, Maya separates herself from them and begins to act out with a tough crowd until her best friend convinces her to see a counselor. The author's use of multiple first-person viewpoints is jarring and seemingly unnecessary. The interweaving of the forced subplot about the counselor, Ms. Mart{ }inez, with Maya's story weakens the potential complexity of the main plot and prevents the full development of Maya and her friends. That is unfortunate because this is the second book in a planned series about Roosevelt High School. Nevertheless, there are few young adult books available in which Chicano characters and family life are central, and the author does a nice job of giving readers a window into the culture and providing some positive role models. Jeanne Triner

About this edition

• Publisher: Arte Publico Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 1558851313
• ISBN 13: 9781558851313
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 126