Synopses & Reviews
Rico Fuentes is 15, lives in Harlem, and is a first-generation American at the end of the 1960s. His
parents are Cubans from a modest background, and his father is an alcoholic. Rico has a very fair
complexion, unlike his friends and family, and is constantly harassed around the neighborhood and
at school for being a dark dude, a pejorative/ironic term from the time. Add to this social and family
friction the fact that one of his best friends has started to use heroin. So when Rico has the chance
to leaveby running away to the Midwest, where a friend liveshe goes for it. Life is easier in
Wisconsin, but can he go through life without his family, who doesn't know where he is? This YA
novel transports us to the era, vividly re-creating its attitudes and people, and moves us with the
magnificent story of Rico's coming of age as he navigates through two different worlds.
Awards: ALA Best Books for Young Adults, Amricas Award Honorable Mention, International
Latino Book Award, NYPL Books for the Teen Age