Peña, M. D. (2008). Mexican WhiteBoy. New York, NY: Delacorte Press.
Danny is a young sixteen year old boy who goes to National City, California to visit his dad and his side of the family. Upon on arriving with dad, he is quite upset because he doesn't speak English. He meets Uno and develops a strong trust worthy relationship. There the students look down at him because of skin color. They become quite shocked when they realized that he doesn't speak Spanish. He is an excellent pitcher and throws the baseball at 95 miles per hour. He hated the fact the his mom would invite mostly whites to the house instead of more Mexicans. He doesn't quite fit in with his classmates and neighborhood. As Danny tries to deal with everything going around, he ends up hurting himself by breaking his skin with his nails.
I think the majority of adolescents have inner struggles of who they are. Danny struggled with being half-white and half-Mexican and Uno struggled with being half-black and half-Mexican. Living in San Diego really didn't help them fit in. Uno lived in a neighborhood where he was the darkest of all and mostly confused as black. Danny was to white to fit with the Mexicans. Self hurting is a very common issue with a lot of young adults. I really like how this book can help other young kids who might be going through a similar situation. Matt de la Peña, has truly done amazing things in this book. For example, he combines several literature elements like foreshadowing. He also has Danny doing the protagonist and antagonist to his own character.
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