WOW!

It's the South Bronx of the 1960s, a neighborhood teetering on change. The young Puerto Rican boy David Pérez is living in the Millbrook housing projects, about to be transferred to St. Luke's Catholic School, where he's already attended catechism and asked if God "popped out of nowhere." So begins Pérez's delightful and engaging "memoirito," a novella-like tale that follows Pérez playing neighborhood games like "Find the Belt" and navigating his way through a school populated by a chalk-throwing nun and a trio of desperadoes known as the Brothers of the Sacred Heart. Pérez becomes an altar boy for a very novel reason, which eventually leads to his first date. He wants "to be a man"-even before he's a teenager. Being cool and tough are life's aspirations (or so he thinks), and being the smartest guy in school isn't something to brag about. WOW! adds a fresh chapter to the colorful chronicles of Latinos living in the United States-complex, layered, y lleno de sabor.