RGG: Sweet story about two girl friends growing up in NYC, one of whom goes to live for a year in Panama with her grandmother. Nothing terrible happens. Easy read.

Marisol and Magdalena are two best friends. They are both first generation Panama-Americans. The two friends are separated when Marisol has to go to Panama for a year. In Panama, she gets in touch with her culture and tries to find her father. I really enjoyed this novel, and I feel a lot of Latinas can identify with it. I speak in Spanglish all the time with my family, and I was also teased about my Spanish accent. I wish I would have read novels like this when I was an early teen. I am not sure on how to use this as a lesson. If I was teaching at an all girls school, I might have my students explore the culture and customs in Panama or other Central American countries. My family is from Honduras, and I found some customs or even sayings (like "Las cosas se hacen bien, o no se hacen") very similar. ( )