Mexican WhiteBoy [Hardcover]

Matt de la Pena (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 12, 2008

DANNY’S TALL AND skinny. Even though he’s not built, his arms are long enough to give his pitch a power so fierce any college scout would sign him on the spot. A 95 mph fastball, but the boy’s not even on a team. Every time he gets up on the mound he loses it.

But at his private school, they don’t expect much else from him. Danny’s brown. Half-Mexican brown. And growing up in San Diego that close to the border means everyone else knows exactly who he is before he even opens his mouth. Before they find out he can’t speak Spanish, and before they realize his mom has blond hair and blue eyes, they’ve got him pegged. Danny’s convinced it’s his whiteness that sent his father back to Mexico. And that’s why he’s spending the summer with his dad’s family. Only, to find himself, he might just have to face the demons he refuses to see right in front of his face.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up—No matter where he lives, 16-year-old Danny Lopez is an outsider. At his private high school in wealthy northern San Diego County, "nobody paid him any attention…because he was Mexican." It didn't matter that he was half white. But when he visits the Mexican side of his family in National City, just a dozen miles from the border, Danny feels "Albino almost" and ashamed. He doesn't even speak Spanish. Rather than learning to blend in, Danny disengages from both worlds, rarely speaking and running his mind in circles with questions about how he might have kept his absent father from leaving the family. He decides to spend the summer in National City, hoping to get closer to his dad's roots and learn how to be "real" and stop feeling numb. Instead, he finds that, by the end of the summer, he has filled the void through unexpected friendship and love. In this first-rate exploration of self-identity, Danny's growth as a baseball pitcher becomes a metaphor for the conflicts he must overcome due to his biracial heritage. Dialogue written in a coarse street vernacular and interwoven with Spanish is awkward to read at first—like Danny, readers are made to feel like outsiders among the hard-edged kids of National City. But as the characters develop, their language starts to feel familiar and warm, and their subtle tenderness becomes more apparent. A mostly linear plot (with occasional flashbacks), plenty of sports action, and short chapters make this book a great pick for reluctant or less-experienced readers.—Madeline Walton-Hadlock, San Jose Public Library, CA
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From Booklist

Biracial Danny Lopez doesn’t think he fits anywhere. He feels like an outsider with his Mexican father’s family, with whom he is staying for the summer, and at his mostly white school, and he wonders if his confusion drove his father away. He also struggles with his obsession for baseball; a gifted player with a blazing fastball, he lacks control of his game. With the support of a new friend and his caring cousins, Danny begins to deal with the multitude of problems in his life, which include his tendency to cut himself, an unusual characteristic in a male YA protagonist. The author juggles his many plotlines well, and the portrayal of Danny’s friends and neighborhood is rich and lively. Where the story really lights up is in the baseball scenes, which sizzle like Danny’s fastball. A violent scene, left somewhat unresolved, is the catalyst for him to confront the truth about his father. Danny’s struggle to find his place will speak strongly to all teens but especially to those of mixed race. Grades 9-12. --Lynn Rutan

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (August 12, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385733100
• ISBN-13: 978-0385733106
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #728,424 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Matt de la Pena's debut novel, Ball Don't Lie, was an ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults and an ALA-YALSA Quick Pick and is soon to be released as a motion picture starring Ludacris, Nick Cannon, Emelie de Ravin, Grayson Boucher, and Rosanna Arquette (based on the screenplay he co-wrote with director Brin Hill). de la Pena's second novel, Mexican WhiteBoy, was an ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adult (Top Ten Pick), a 2009 Notable Book for a Global Society, a Junior Library Guild Selection and made the 2008 Bulletin for the Center of Children's Literature Blue Ribbon List. His third novel, We Were Here, will be published by Delacorte in October, 2009. His short fiction has appeared in various literary journals, including: Pacific Review, The Vincent Brothers Review, Chiricu, Two Girl's Review, George Mason Review, and Allegheny Literary Review. de la Pena received his MFA in creative writing from San Diego State University and his BA from the University of the Pacific, where he attended school on a full athletic scholarship for basketball. He currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, where he teaches creative writing.

Website: mattdelapena.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly Absorbing, September 3, 2008

By 

Nora Jones (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mexican WhiteBoy (Hardcover)

I am not a boy, I am not Mexican and I am no longer a teenager but I could relate to Danny. More than that I cared what happened to him. As I turned the pages I was angry with him, disconnected, in pain or feeling his triumphs. And that is just on Danny, what about Senior. I couldn't be farther from Senior when you compare our stats but when his words were on the page I would read and reread them feeling the need to absorb. I can't say enough about this book. Mexican White Boy is a brilliant piece of writing.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Borderlands, November 11, 2008

By 

K. D. Charney - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mexican WhiteBoy (Hardcover)

One of the most crucial thematic moments in "Mexican WhiteBoy," Matt de la Peña's new novel about a half-white, half-Mexican teenager struggling with his identity, happens when the father of his best friend, Uno, discusses poverty: "It's people who wander into your city, Uno. They the only ones who could see your life for what it is. National City, boy. Ain't but a forgotten slice of America's finest city. And you know what's on the tip of all y'all's tongues? Each and every one of y'all?"

The word he is getting at is "money," or some variation thereof, and the setting for his sermon is San Diego County, one of America's many cultural conundrums, where well-to-do whites inhabit plush beachfront property just miles from the border with impoverished Tijuana. De la Peña explored poverty in his previous book, "Ball Don't Lie," but this time he probes deeper, suggesting that the forces that divide us are far more complicated than class and race combined. Instead, all Americans reside on a hazy border between confusion and self-realization.

Raised by his white mother but sent to live with his father's Mexican family for the summer, title character Danny is caught between two worlds and two identities. At his upscale prep school where he was cut from the baseball team - because, in spite of his powerful pitching arm, he tends to choke on the mound - he is a "lowly" Mexican. But here, in a poor Hispanic neighborhood, he's a white boy with a brilliant mind (though he rarely speaks it) and a bright future.

During his stay, Danny befriends Uno, whose father is black and whose mother is Mexican. Both boys long for their fathers. Danny's is supposedly in Mexico; Uno's is a few hours north in Oxnard. The two boys bond as they hustle other kids on the baseball field, wagering that Danny can strike them out, in order to raise money so Uno can go live with his father. From his relationship with his wisecracking cousin, Sophia (herself on the border between tomboy adolescence and full-fledged womanhood), to his clumsy courtship of a pretty Mexican girl, conspicuously and plausibly named Liberty, who barely speaks English (Danny only knows a few words of Spanish), Danny is a tried young man, defined differently by each encounter but unable to find a suitable definition for himself.

De la Peña's prose has the feel of Danny's pitches - swift, steady, and fierce on impact - and the story hurtles unflinchingly toward a fastball finish, with a chilling suicide attempt after Danny learns his father is not in Mexico, but in a nearby prison, and a final showdown with the star batter from his prep school's baseball team. The story ends with the end of summer, with new hopes on the horizon but nothing fully resolved. In that, De la Peña captures the bittersweet transience of youth. Everything lies ahead, and yet the heart yearns to hold on to the here and now.

"Mexican WhiteBoy" feels particularly relevant in a year when America has elected its first biracial president. While the book's title may at first sound like a playful take on an issue made quaint by performance artists and standup comedians, upon closer examination it speaks to the inherent contradictions of pinpointing race at a time when identity is anything but fixed. Like Danny's, the president-elect's narrative contains humble beginnings, an absent father, a star athlete, and a compassionate sense of responsibility to his family's sacrifices, which is often the seed of greatness. And like the latter, "Mexican WhiteBoy" paints a complex portrait of a new America, yet to be defined but impossible to dismiss.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read, October 12, 2008

By 

Matthew Van Buren (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mexican WhiteBoy (Hardcover)

The great strength of the story is the relationship between Danny and Uno, two kids who start out as rivals and end up the best of friends. The author does an excellent job of telling each of their stories, of presenting them in a way that lets me understand the issues they face, even though I come from an entirely different background. The story is extremely entertaining and well-paced, often combining moments of laugh-out-loud comedy with traces of melancholy and even sadness. Whether you're a baseball fan or not, you'll enjoy the story of these two kids as they navigate the pitfalls of teenage life, cope with family issues, and listen to the preaching of Uno's hilarious (and at times insightful) father, Senior.