I recently joined a blogger book club called Teen Lit Rocks. The book club is just starting out so Under the Mesquite was our first book.  The book was amazing.  I loved it so much. The main character is Lupita, she is the oldest of eight children in a Mexican/American family. She is in high school and is taking on a path of acting. She will soon find out that when nothing is going right you can get lost in acting or writing.

When Lupita’s Mami (Mother) is diagnosed with cancer her whole world is changed. She must take charge of the family while her mother gets better. After Mami has an operation to remove the cancer she must under go chemo.

Even though she seems to be getting better after a year of chemo the cancer came back, but this time it is even worse. Papi decides that Mami must go to a special clinic in Galveston to get treatment which means that Lupita will be running the house all by herself. Even though it is hard running the household and seven kids, Lupita manages for the three months Mami is away.

I don’t want to give the ending away so you are going to have to read the book to find out what happens.

This book is not a fairytale as you can see but it really touched my heart, I even cried in some parts of it. Under the Mesquite has definitely made it to my top 5 favorite books.

For the letter grade, I grade the book a B+.

Full Disclosure: Thank you to Lee & Low Books for providing me with the early copy of this book to conduct my review.