One thing that was small but bothered me greatly is that Alvarez did not name a country, just stated that it was somewhere in Latin America. All of this is fairly fitting with the story so far, but here it also diverges into looking at stories of the revolution there and the troubles that people went through in Milly's native country. Then the book veers into Milly's trip to visit the country of her birth and her quest for more information about her biological parents. Assorted friendships at Milly's school are also addressed, feeling quite a bit like a typical coming-of-age story for middle grade/young adult literature. In the beginning, it explored the many relationships within one family, with each character having their own quirk - from Milly's mother who is occasionally a bit of a prude as a result of her Mormon upbringing to Milly's Jewish grandmother who uses her wealth as leverage while secretly still being haunted by stories of the Holocaust to Milly's over-eager younger brother who just wants everyone to get along. This book had a strong start but petered out somewhere in the middle. Milly has always kept her adoption hidden from the other kids in her small Vermont town but when a new boy starting at her high school hails from the same Latin America country where she was born, she discovers that she is interested in learning more about her birth story. Written with immediacy and charm, there is accessibility to the very American Milly’s attitudes and ideas that will help readers accompany her on her journey of discovery and growth. Rather than losing anything, Milly finds herself gaining as she explores her heritage-resulting in a rich portrayal of this brave and lucky young woman.
Grounded in the daily life of school friends at first, the author explores Milly’s adoptive family and then, as she seeks her roots, moves all the action to where Milly was born. Through her attachment to a new student at her school-whose instinctive recognition of her connection to him gradually blossoms into romance-Mildred Milagros grows into her bicultural skin. Vague as to which Central American country this is, Alvarez universalizes the story of a young girl finding both the love and the confidence to search for her birth parents. "Ninth-grader Milly struggles to deny her adopted status in a loving family until she begins to understand her origins through a friendship with Pablo, a new arrival from her country of birth.
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