" To escape a home dominated by his alcoholic stepfather, 17-year-old Jesse abruptly leaves his home with his mother and stepfather, high school, and moves into an apartment with his older brother, Abel, and takes classes at Fresno City College. It is 1968, and the brothers not only face the threat of being drafted and the daily grind of their poverty, but they also face being a part of the latino minnority group. Racial and class prejudice limit their employment opportunities to field labor, and they pick melons, oranges, or cotton, depending on the season. The author Gary Soto portrays the poverty of the boys in the scene where Abel and Jesse are hitchhiking to Pismo Beach for their spring break. Stranded for several days along the road, they encounter many hardships together through the night, and they never end up reaching the ocean wich is a big dissapointment. Jesse is artistically gifted and shy around girls; he struggles to communicate with girls, to date, and to succeed both socially and academically in school. Soto makes people realize how difficult the life of a mexican american during this time. I did not like this book because it was plotless. It has nothing exiting that really makesa reader want to keep reading. The story is bland and has nothong that I found memorable. I would not reccomend this book to anyone because it's so boring. "
— Odalys, 12/26/2013