cover image Fitting in

Fitting in

Anilu Bernardo. Arte Publico Press, $14.95 (200pp) ISBN 978-1-55885-176-4

This bland quintet of predictable stories varies so little in its themes and characters that it offers readers little incentive to hold out after two or three servings. Each story features a similar protagonist: a preteen/teenage Cuban American girl in Florida preoccupied with ""fitting in"" with non-Latino neighbors and classmates. Even their names--Sari, Clari, Mari, Chari and Tere--seem interchangeable. Sari worries what her new friends will think of her grandmother, who speaks no English; Chari risks her status with the popular (Anglo) girls to befriend a new student from Haiti; Tere is teased at school because she can't pronounce the ""th"" sound in English words. However real these situations may be, Bernardo's (Jumping Off to Freedom) explorations of them are superficial and uninspired. Characterizations are flat and the conclusions to the stories are obvious. Ages 11-up. (Sept.)