Yes Is Better Than No
Maria Vasquez passes St. Jude's statue, nods him a promise to  notice him tomorrow, and heads for the B-29 bar where she knows there  will be no white people and where she hopes there will be dancing: "It  would be good to dance all night. When you're dancing it doesn't  really matter whether there is a board nailed across the front door or  not." Maria is worried: she already has to lie and say she only has  four kids because the welfare worker warned her not to have any more  before her fifth was born. Mrs. Domingo, Maria's friend and neighbor,  is a basket weaver who knows how to forget her English when tourists  talk "movie-Indian" at her; her house was started 23 years ago and  still doesn't have a roof. And she enters every contest she hears  about, even when the prize is a swimming pool. Gabriel Soto is a proud  young man who has his traditional dress and history all mixed up, has  to keep a low profile with authorities, and paints wonderful  pictures. One thing all the Papago people in these stories know about  surviving in an Arizona city run by white people: "They have each  learned long ago to try to give answers which will most please the  questioner. At times this is hard to figure out, but they  try... Another thing. If a yes or no answer is required, they try to  say yes."-- For great reviews of books for girls, check outLet's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. --From500 Great Books by Women; review by Jesse Larsen