CUBA 15

This funny and tender chronicle of Violet’s 15th year of life takes place in Chicago, but focuses on Cuban culture. Her family foists the quinceañera party, a marking of the passage from girlhood to womanhood, on Violet. She recoils from the idea of pink dresses and public performance but reluctantly agrees. Over time, while working on a stand-up comedy routine about her “loco” family, Violet becomes excited to be a quince, and grandmotherly genius solves the pink-dress problem. An appreciation of the absurd undulates through Violet and through the book itself. However, in conflict with the adult responsibilities her family promises are their refusal to discuss Cuba and their fury when Violet researches it. Conquering this problem is her real challenge. While the writing is choppy, with sentences falling awkwardly, there’s heart and humor underneath all the same. (Fiction. YA)