Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood

Rating:
Summary: Richie's Picks: SAMMY & JULIANA IN HOLLYWOOD
Review: In 1968, during the summer preceding his senior year at Las Cruces High School in southern New Mexico, seventeen-year-old Sammy Santos hooks up with Juliana Rios. The powerful and achingly tragic story Sammy recounts of Juliana and that summer is but a mere preface in this stunning ode to growing up in the barrio--a neighborhood that some joker has named Hollywood. I alternately laughed, cheered, and cried as Sammy and his Hollywood friends encounter the prejudices, the Church, the hormones, the War, the drugs, the violence, the music, the aspirations, and the dress code, while making their way through that year both inside and outside of the barrio. If I had to choose a single "top" book from the 200+ new books for teens that I've read in 2004, SAMMY & JULIANA IN HOLLYWOOD would be the one.


Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: This is a book I highly recommend. I got it in the mail on Sat and finished it by the next day.
It can be at times very depressing to read, in that Catcher in the Rye type of way. The difference is that Sammy isn't born into a life of privelege, and his obstacles extend beyond his own wonderings. His immidiate world is filled with economic and social harship.
Sammy goes through so much that you can't even imagine what else could possibly happen, but you want to be there with him when it does. It is very honest, vivid and well-written. My only negative criticism: there's a part that seems to be chronologically out of order...I was a lit major in college, so I am very picky.

Rating:
Summary: A Remarkable Book with an Unforgettable Voice
Review: This novel covers a year in the life of a Hispanic teenager living in a Florida barrio in the late sixties. The voice of Sammy, the main character, is authentic and his personality is vivid and lovable. I was rooting for him from page one through the end.

The author also captures the flavor of the barrio and Sammy's high school through wonderful portrayals of Sammy's girlfriend Juliana, his Hispanic and Jewish friends, his caring family, and his next door neighbor. They practically step off the page.

Finally, the book, through portrayals of Vietnam soldiers, school protests, and diminishing hemlines, makes the late sixties come alive.

Sammy and Juliana is a wonderful novel.