Monica is looking forward to a quiet end of the summer on Lucia Street. She’s even beginning to accept her neighborhood and get accustomed to the view from her porch – “a street lined with run-down houses, tall skinny palms, and here and there, a gnarled pepper tree.”
When she sets out one late summer morning amid kids playing baseball on the street and neighbors calling out to her in Spanish, she does not expect the tantalizing mystery that awaits her. While visiting a local guitar shop, Monica overhears a heated argument between father and son. They have lost La Única, a precious family heirloom that should never have been sold. Suddenly, Monica finds herself fingered as the chief suspect.
OFELIA DUMAS LACHTMAN is a native of Los Angeles, California, where she still lives. She is the author of numerous bilingual children’s picture books, including Pepita and the Bully (Piñata Books, 2011), Tina and the Scarecrow Skins / Tina y las pieles de espantapájaros (Piñata Books, 2002), Big Enough / Bastante grande (Piñata Books, 1998), and the Pepita series: Pepita on Pepper Street / Pepita en la calle Pepper (Piñata Books, 2008), Pepita Packs Up / Pepita empaca (Piñata Books, 2005), Pepita Finds Out / Lo que Pepita descubre (Piñata Books, 2002), Pepita Takes Time / Pepita, siempre tarde (Piñata Books, 2000), Pepita Thinks Pink / Pepita y el color rosado (Piñata Books, 1998), and Pepita Talks Twice / Pepita habla dos veces (Piñata Books, 1995). Her novels for young adults include The Truth about Las Mariposas (Piñata Books, 2007), A Good Place for Maggie (Piñata Books, Spring 2002), The Summer of El Pintor (Piñata Books, 2001), Call Me Consuelo (Piñata Books, 1997), The Girl from Playa Blanca (Piñata Books, 1995), and Campfire Dreams (Harlequin, 1987), for which she won the Benjamin Franklin Award for best young adult novel. She has also written one adult novel, A Shell for Angela (Arte Público Press, 1995).
ATOS Interest Level: Middle Grades
Category: Young Adult
LEXILE: 700L
