He’d give anything to be out there playing
instead of standing here watching. Trying to maintain this smile out of
respect. He digs into his wrists some more with his nails. Breaks previously
broken skin and pulls away. A smear of blood he wipes away with his other hand,
rubs off across his dark jeans. Back home his mom is always on him to stop
digging, but that only makes him want to dig more. --Danny
Powerful.
Passionate. Heartbreaking.
MEXICAN
WHITE BOY by Matt de la Peňa (Delacorte Press, 2008) is a story of friendship, revelations, acceptance,
and finding courage and strength in the face of adversity. Danny’s mother is
more worried about her new husband than her son. Danny happily goes to visit
his father’s family for the summer, planning to run off to Mexico and find his
dad and stay with him. But there are secrets that he is not prepared for, and
that hurt more than anything. Danny is lost in a dark place, until a true
friendship gives him the courage to accept and move on. (Warning. There is a suicide attempt in this
story.)
SUMMARY:
Danny's tall and skinny. Even though he’s not built, his arms are long
enough to give his pitch a power so fierce any college scout would sign him on
the spot. Ninety-five mile an hour fastball, but the boy’s not even on a team.
Every time he gets up on the mound he loses it. But at his private
school, they don’t expect much else from him. Danny’ s brown. Half-Mexican
brown. And growing up in San Diego that close to the border means everyone else
knows exactly who he is before he even opens his mouth. Before they find out he
can’t speak Spanish, and before they realize his mom has blond hair and blue
eyes, they’ve got him pegged. But it works the other way too. And Danny’s
convinced it’s his whiteness that sent his father back to Mexico. That’s
why he’s spending the summer with his dad’s family. Only, to find himself, he
may just have to face the demons he refuses to see--the demons that are right
in front of his face. And open up to a friendship he never saw coming.
ABOUT THE
AUTHOR: MEXICAN WHITE BOY is Matt de la Peña’s second novel. He
attended the University of the Pacific on a basketball scholarship and went on
to earn a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at San Diego State
University. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he teaches creative writing.
Look for Matt's other books, Ball Don’t Lie, We
Were Here, I Will
Save You, and The Living, for which he received the Pura Belpré Author Honor Award,
all available from Delacorte Press. You can also visit him at mattdelapena.com
and follow @mattdelapena on Twitter.
#THROWBACKTHURSDAY
#READLATINOLIT