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Mexican WhiteBoy

by Matt de la Pena

Narrator Henry Leyva

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Length 7 hours 20 minutes

Language English

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Summary
About the author

“[A] first-rate exploration of self-identity.” —School Library Journal

Danny’s tall and skinny. Even though he’s not built, his arms are long enough to give his pitch a power so fierce any college scout would sign him on the spot. Ninety-five-mile-an-hour fastball, but the boy’s not even on a team. Every time he gets up on the mound, he loses it. Ball ends up so far out of the strike zone it’s laughable.

But at his private school, they don’t expect much else from him. Danny’s brown. Half-Mexican brown. And growing up in San Diego, that close to the border, means everyone knows exactly who he is before he even opens his mouth. Before they find out he can’t speak Spanish, and before they realize his mom has blond hair and blue eyes, they’ve got him pegged. But it works the other way too. And Danny’s convinced it’s his whiteness that sent his father back to Mexico.

That’s why he’s spending the summer with his dad’s family. Only, to find himself, he may just have to face the demons he refuses to see—the demons that are right in front of his face. And open up to a friendship he never saw coming.

Set in the alleys and on the ball fields of San Diego County, Mexican WhiteBoy is a story of friendship, acceptance, and the struggle to find your identity in a world of definitions.

YA Fiction

Mexican WhiteBoy is Matt de la Peña’s second novel for young readers. It was an ALA-YALSA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults, a Notable Book for a Global Society, and a Junior Library Guild Selection. His first novel, Ball Don’t Lie, was an ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults and an ALA-YALSA Quick Pick for Young Adults and was made into a major motion picture. He attended the University of the Pacific on a basketball scholarship and went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at San Diego State University. De la Peña lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he teaches creative writing. Look for Matt de la Peña’s third novel, We Were Here, and fourth novel, I Will Save You, both available from Delacorte Press.