Voices in First Person

August 1, 2008
Gr 6-10-As in "Moccasin Thunder" (HarperCollins, 2005) and "Red Hot Salsa" (Holt, 2005), Carlson has drawn from both established and new writers, focusing on finding Latino voices that speak to contemporary readers. Collected here are poems and short stories whose subjects range from finding God in the clouds to a lust for eating chicken, from someone's fingers on the hole in your jeans in a crowded café to someone asking, once again, "So, where are you from?" This collection sparkles more than its predecessors because of its dynamic design, featuring black-and-white photographs and line illustrations incorporated with the text in a collagelike magazine layout. Few pieces are longer than a spread or two, and the entire package encourages endless browsing, flipping, and double-dipping. Too bad this is a hardcover-only release, and too bad someone thought it needed the odd synopses that float like loud subtitles, prosaically describing and overburdening the pieces. Why does the title "Last Week I Wanted to Die" need a caption that reads: "A girl, plagued by thoughts of not fitting in, contemplates the meaning of death"? Why diminish "Poultrymorphosis" with the explanation "A boy describes eating his favorite food," thereby soddening the appetite? But forgive this book its overzealousnessit still sings, and nudges its readers to do the same."Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CA"

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