Angela Morales

Small slices of a unique childhood: the author is the oldest of five children with most volatile parents. Told chronologically, Angela thrives within her middle class home (the parents own a successful appliance store) in California's Central Valley. Her parents have come up from poverty in Mexico, "Mexican Joads", and her mother becomes independent and assertive while fighting the physical abuse by her husband. In fact, one story deals with Angela's trepidation about calling the police on her father - "my dad is beating my mom". In the most affecting of the twelve stories, "The Big Divorce", the mother pays first and last month's rent on a house hours away and settles the kids into the new house and new school for months, before happily returning to Angela's father. All the essays reflect a thoughtful, imaginative child growing up under difficult circumstances.… (mere)