I had mixed feelings about this book. The writing itself wasn't bad, but I had a few issues with the content.

First of all, the bullying. This book takes place in California, a state with a very large Latino population. From the first few pages of the book, I could tell that the teasing factor was an exaggeration. It seems unlikely that Margie would be the only Hispanic kid in her class/grade that was good enough at speaking English that she didn't need to be in the separated bilingual class. And really, I'm sure there's some teasing, but I don't think that it would be such a huge deal. Margie whines constantly about how it took years for the teasing to stop, and with Lupe it would start all over again. So unrealistic.

Second: I don't think kids really stress out that much over working their butts off to become American. Margie said at one point that she had talked her mom into letting her get a PERM (at age 10?!?) so that she wouldn't stand out with her straight black hair. She obsesses over having an American Christmas, playing the same xmas CDs over and over again until she knows the words by heart. I'm not trying to sound mean or anything. I may be wrong (I am a white, teenage girl, born in the US) but I really think the pressure to immediately become an American was pretty overdone, at least for the 21st century. Kids nowadays are a whole lot more accepting of other cultures, especially in places like California.

All that being said, there were parts of the book that I really did like. I thought that Lupe's point of view was very well done (especially compared to Margie's.) The author did great job showing how her happiness and curiosity from being in a new place mixed with worry about how Margie might resent her (which she did, by the way). I liked Lupe a whole lot better than Margie.

I also really liked Camille, and how shocked Margie was when Camille revealed that her father's side of the family was Cuban:

Margie looked at Camille as if she had never seen her before. This tall blond girl, with such fair skin and no accent, had a Latino father. There was no question she was American, but she didn't seem to mind that her relatives were not.

"And here I thought you were totally American," Margie replied, completely surprised.

"That's funny, so did I," said Camille, laughing. "I am American, and I'm the same person you knew before you found out that half my family comes from other countries."

Way to tell her off, Camille. That girl needed to be taken down a notch.

The author also threw in some great passages about the American way of life, including my personal favorite:

Lupe was surprised at the way Margie would constantly skip songs and change CDs. She would have preferred to hear each song all the way through until it finished. Just as Lupe was starting to understand some of the words in the song, Margie would skip to the next one or open the player to switch discs. Whenever a song was playing, Margie was already looking for the next CD she wanted to hear.

Now, as she looked at the CD player, Lupe thought, Yes, that's how I feel in this country, always fast-forwarded. The minute I think I have caught up with things, it turns out that I need to learn something new.

Yep, that's America. Life in the fastlane, always.

Judging from the cover, I had expected dancing to play a somewhat larger role in the majority of the story, but it didn't really become a big deal until about 3/4 of the way in. I didn't really mind though. I really don't like the title- I feel like it doesn't really make sense with the story.

All in all, this book was fine. Not great, not bad, but just kinda fine. I don't think I would read it again, and I probably wouldn't recommend it (just because of how I find it somewhat unrealistic, at least on Margie's side). However, I did enjoy reading it, so 3 stars.