Alamo Wars
Grade 6–8—Villareal takes on several important themes including illegal immigration, bullying, parent/teacher relationships, and bilingualism. When a beloved English teacher dies, her colleagues decide to honor her by naming the school auditorium after her. For the dedication celebration, they plan to have the seventh graders perform a play that she had written long ago. However, Miss Mac's take on the Battle of the Alamo turns out to be a racist, narrow-minded perspective, which does not go over well with the Hispanic students. Aspiring boxer Marco Díaz; his friend Izzy Peña; and Raquel Flores, an undocumented Mexican immigrant, face bullies while battling the ingrained attitudes of the community. When Sandy Martínez, the new Latina English teacher, raises questions about the script and a known bully being given a part because his father agrees to build the set, she's told by a veteran teacher: "There are times when we have to do things…that might not seem right or just. But we do them for the greater good…." The author sprinkles Spanglish throughout the novel, giving it a true mixed-heritage feeling. Though the ending is somewhat corny and the undocumented-worker angle takes a backseat to other story lines, Villareal does raise questions about what it means to be an illegal immigrant. He also shows how children sometimes blindly parrot their parents' ideas and bad habits. Ultimately, many of the characters—and readers—learn that there can be more than one truth, more than one point of view.—Terrilyn Fleming, Colby Public Schools, KSCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.