It Doesn't Have to Be This Way/No Tiene Que Ser Asi: A Barrio Story/Una Historia del Barrio

Monchi, the 10-year-old narrator of Rodr guez's (Am rica Is Her Name) well-intentioned if oversimplified cautionary tale, describes his encounter with a gang. When Clever, Monchi's neighbor and a gang member, announces, ""It's about time you joined the Pee Wees,"" Monchi is gratified that the older boy ""wanted to be friends and wasn't going to hurt me."" Thus, he accepts the invitation, despite warnings from his older girl cousin, Dreamer: ""I used to hang around with Clever and them guys.... I don't like some of the things they do."" On the night he is to be ""jumped in"" (beaten for 60 seconds by fellow gang members) as a rite of initiation, a rival gang shows up with guns and shoots Dreamer, who has come to dissuade her cousin from participating. After Monchi learns that she will live, he decides not to join the gang. Unfortunately, all the episodes in the bilingual story get equal weight (a visit with Monchi's uncle, a conversation with Dreamer about a knife in Monchi's possession, etc.) so that the story never builds to the climax when Dreamer is shot. Similarly, Galvez's portraits are lifelike but fall short of creating tension. For example, in a spread that foreshadows Clever's malevolence, Clever gets lost in the gutter. The message is valuable, but gets muddied in the telling. Eve Bunting's Your Move, illus. by James Ransome, offers a more forceful picture book treatment of the same subject. Ages 6-up. (Aug.)