Popular young-adult author Diane Gonzales Bertrand (Sweet Fifteen) has scored a touchdown with this story of student teacher Kaylene Morales and her surprise reunion with old friend Alex Garrison, now a coach and fellow instructor at Leon Creek High School. As Kaylene and Alex become reacquainted, they learn the difficulties—and the necessity—of balancing their working lives with the search for personal happiness outside the school zone. Teenaged readers will rapidly become immersed in enjoyable scenes of football games, pizza dinners, school parties, family arguments, and locker-room banter. At the same time, they may find themselves pondering such dilemmas as the conflicts between athletic and academic demands and between professional duties and personal aspirations.
Named to the New York Public Library’s 2000 Books for the Teen Age
“Ethnic values are honestly portrayed in this sincere novel…[It is] a brisk bilingual text that uses rhythmic prose to tell a simple story.”—School Library Journal
“Alicia’s account of her experience brims with the bracing flavors of the beach and the immediacy of each moment as it rolls in like a wave and breaks upon her.”—Booklist
DIANE GONZALES BERTRAND is the author of several books for young adults. They include There’s a Name for This Feeling / Hay un nombre para lo que siento (Piñata Books, 2014), The F Factor (Piñata Books, 2010), Close to the Heart (2002), Trino’s Time (2001), Trino’s Choice (1999), Lessons of the Game (1998), and Sweet Fifteen (1995). A lifelong resident of San Antonio, Bertrand teaches at St. Mary’s University, where she is also Writer in Residence.
Learn more by visiting her faculty page.
ATOS Interest Level: Upper Grades
Category: Young Adult
ATOS English: 5.4
Accelerated Reader Quiz #: 35013
