From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8–Gram, Naomi, and Owen are happy at Avocado Acres Trailer Rancho until the day the children's mother arrives. After being gone so long that they don't recognize her, Skyla enters their lives, lavishing attention and presents on fifth-grade Naomi; however, she never seems to include Owen. After several weeks, the truth about her reappearance becomes apparent. Clive, her new boyfriend, wants Naomi to live with them and become the permanent baby-sitter for his daughter. The ensuing custody battle forces Gram, Naomi, Owen and a neighbor couple to make a hasty trip to Mexico to look for Santiago, the children's biological father and a well-known wood-carver. After a physically and emotionally exhausting search, they finally find him at the annual Christmas festival in their ancestral village. Even though the children will continue to live with their great-grandmother, this reunion gives them the reassurance of their father's love and support. Ryan has written a moving book about family dynamics. While she explores the youngsters' Mexican heritage and gives a vivid picture of life in and the art of Oaxaca, her story is universal, showing the strong bonds and love that make up an extended family. All of the characters are well drawn, and readers will share Naomi's fear until the judge makes the final decision about her future.–Sharon Morrison, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, OK Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
Naomi's tale is one of becoming, of finding one's heritage, of discovering one's true talent while overcoming the odds of abandonment, anxiety, and disappointment. This is also a story of strength, devotion and the search for family. One highlight is the description of the Radish Festival in Oaxaca, Mexico, which Naomi, her brother, Owen, and their extended family visit from their home in Lemon Tree, California. The fully voiced reading by Annie Kozuch is serviceable, although several of the characters have exaggerated pitch and tone. Even though some of the voices are overdone, Kozuch's reading keeps the story on track. L.D.H. 2005 YALSA Selection © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Gr. 4-7. Half-Mexican Naomi Soledad, 11, and her younger disabled brother, Owen, have been brought up by their tough, loving great-grandmother in a California trailer park, and they feel at home in the multiracial community. Then their alcoholic mom reappears after seven years with her slimy boyfriend, hoping to take Naomi (not Owen) back and collect the welfare check. Determined not to let that happen, Gram drives the trailer across the border to a barrio in Oaxaca to search for the children's dad at the city's annual Christmas arts festival. In true mythic tradition, Ryan, the author of the award-winning Esperanza Rising (2000), makes Naomi's search for her dad a search for identity, and both are exciting. Mom is demonized, but the other characters are more complex, and the quest is heartbreaking. The dense factual detail about the festival sometimes slows the story, but it's an effective tool for dramatizing Naomi's discovery of her Mexican roots and the artist inside herself. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
Naomi Soledad León Outlaw has had a lot to contend with in her young life, her name for one. Then there are her clothes (sewn in polyester by Gram), her difficulty speaking up, & her status at school as "nobody special." But according to Gram's self-prophecies, most problems can be overcome with positive thinking. Luckily, Naomi also has her carving to strengthen her spirit. And life with Gram & her little brother, Owen, is happy & peaceful. That is, until their mother reappears after 7 years of being gone, stirring up all sorts of questions & challenging Naomi to discover who she really is.

ANNOTATION

When Naomi's absent mother resurfaces to claim her, Naomi runs away to Mexico with her great-grandmother and younger brother in search of her father.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Naomi Soledad Leon Outlaw has had a lot to contend with in her young life, her name for one. Then there are her clothes (sewn in polyester by Gram), her difficulty speaking up, and her status among her classmates as "nobody special." But according to Gram's self-prophecies, most problems can be overcome with positive thinking. Luckily, Naomi also has her soap carving, a talent at which she excels. And life at Avocado Acres Trailer Rancho in Lemon Tree, California, with Gram and her little brother, Owen, is happy and peaceful. That is, until their mother reappears after seven years of being gone, stirring up all sorts of questions and challenging Naomi to discover and proclaim who she really is. Rich with the warmth, wisdom, and love of Pam Munoz Ryan's Mexican and Oklahoman heritages, this riveting novel about family and identity will leave a deep impression on your heart. Pam Munoz Ryan's inspiration for this book began while reading about Oaxacan wood carving. She says, "I came across a one-line reference to the Night of the Radishes. The event sounded so magical I knew I had to see it. In 1997, on the 100th Anniversary of La Noche de los Rabanos, I visited the romantic and mysterious Oaxaca City, a feast of colors, tastes, pageantry, and festivals. When I began writing Naomi's story and she evolved into a soap carver, my imagination rushed me back to Oaxaca. Or was it Oaxaca's spell that first mesmerized me, and inspired the lioness, Naomi Leon?"

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Fifth-grader Naomi's great-grandmother has been a loving guardian for Naomi and Owen, her handicapped brother, since their mother divorced their father and abandoned them in Lemon Tree, Calif., seven years before. When the children's mother, Skyla, makes a sudden reappearance, she wants Naomi to leave Gram and Owen to move to Las Vegas-and Gram fears that Skyla and her new boyfriend have ulterior motives. "What locked the possibility of catastrophe in my mind, was that Gram and Fabiola were going to miss Wheel of Fortune, and that was going to mess up their 744 nights-in-a-row record," Naomi thinks. Feisty Gram takes action: she and Fabiola and her husband, who hail from Oaxaca City, Mexico, and who knew the children's father, take the children and embark on an odyssey of sorts, in search of their father at Oaxaca's annual radish-carving festival. Once again, Ryan (Esperanza Rising) crystallizes the essence of settings and characters through potent, economic prose. Through Naomi's first-person narration, the author gently captures the girl's simultaneous attraction to and wariness of her mother with Naomi's first impression: "I couldn't take my eyes off her lipstick. It was the exact same color as her hair and went up and down in a perfect rounded M on her top lip." And the heroine's skill with carving connects her to her father long before they finally meet. Sharing her protagonist's love of language, artistic sensibility and keen sensitivity, Ryan creates a tender tale about family love and loyalty. Ages 8-12. (Sept.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature - Carol Raker Collins, Ph.D.

Naomi, half Mexican and half Oklahoman, has many names; but by the end of the book she truly grows into the lioness name. A victim of child abuse by her alcoholic mother, Naomi suffered from selective mutism until her great grandmother took her and her deformed brother Owen under her wing. After seven years of proper care and medical attention, the 11-year-old girl and the 8-year-old boy are suddenly visited by their long-absent mother. As Gran might say, the good and the bad of it is that they have a mother again but she is still trouble. Naomi manages to stand up to her mother's slaps and threats this time around and to lay the groundwork for escape. Gran, Mexican-American friends, and the children run away in a trailer to Mexico to seek the kids' Mexican father. Naomi discovers she has always been like her father in looks and in her amazing talent for carving. This becomes apparent in the Night of the Radishes carving contest in Oaxaca, Mexico. A wonderful reunion with her dad gives Naomi the voice to speak out against her mother in court, once Gran and the kids return to the States. Naomi is no longer "nobody special" in the fifth grade, too, when her soap carvings are displayed in the school library. The book treats very serious subjects (child abuse and physical handicaps) with grace and humor. The girl's narration, often in a language of metaphor, both amuses and wrings the heart. 2004, Scholastic Press, Ages 10 to 12.

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-Gram, Naomi, and Owen are happy at Avocado Acres Trailer Rancho until the day the children's mother arrives. After being gone so long that they don't recognize her, Skyla enters their lives, lavishing attention and presents on fifth-grade Naomi; however, she never seems to include Owen. After several weeks, the truth about her reappearance becomes apparent. Clive, her new boyfriend, wants Naomi to live with them and become the permanent baby-sitter for his daughter. The ensuing custody battle forces Gram, Naomi, Owen and a neighbor couple to make a hasty trip to Mexico to look for Santiago, the children's biological father and a well-known wood-carver. After a physically and emotionally exhausting search, they finally find him at the annual Christmas festival in their ancestral village. Even though the children will continue to live with their great-grandmother, this reunion gives them the reassurance of their father's love and support. Ryan has written a moving book about family dynamics. While she explores the youngsters' Mexican heritage and gives a vivid picture of life in and the art of Oaxaca, her story is universal, showing the strong bonds and love that make up an extended family. All of the characters are well drawn, and readers will share Naomi's fear until the judge makes the final decision about her future.-Sharon Morrison, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, OK Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

AudioFile

Naomi's tale is one of becoming, of finding one's heritage, of discovering one's true talent while overcoming the odds of abandonment, anxiety, and disappointment. This is also a story of strength, devotion and the search for family. One highlight is the description of the Radish Festival in Oaxaca, Mexico, which Naomi, her brother, Owen, and their extended family visit from their home in Lemon Tree, California. The fully voiced reading by Annie Kozuch is serviceable, although several of the characters have exaggerated pitch and tone. Even though some of the voices are overdone, Kozuch's reading keeps the story on track. L.D.H. 2005 YALSA Selection © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews