Great start of the year book

Reviewed by JodiG. for TeensReadToo.com

Everybody has one perfect moment in time upon which they will someday look back and think, "that was when everything changed." For Yumi Ru�z-Hirsch, that moment is here.

Yumi lives in a perfect cross-blend of cultures and ethnicity that make her so identifiable to teenagers today. What is there in the world that can't be tackled by a part-Jewish, part-Cuban, part-Japanese, American girl? Plenty.

First of all, Yumi has just found out that her grandfather, Saul, is dying of cancer. Yumi is closer to Saul than anyone else. Even at ninety-two years old, she can't believe that he only has months to live and she asks him to tell her about his life.

While dealing with the threat of losing Saul, Yumi also finds herself facing other changes and challenges in her life. Her school has decided that it can no longer support the orchestra. Yumi and her friends in the orchestra decide to organize a concert to raise the money to fund it. But with no firm leadership or plans, the fundraiser is turning out to be a disorganized mess.

Now Yumi's mom has a new boyfriend and is also planning to move them out of the only home Yumi has ever known. She'll be further away from the beach, which means further from surfing.

She is also worried about her father, a punk-rock songwriter who has yet to sell a song, and who isn't exactly close to his father, Saul.

Over the next months, as she listens to the stories of Saul's life, Yumi learns that change is inevitable and that someday you may look back and realize that it was really the start of something wonderful.

I WANNA BE YOUR SHOEBOX is an endearing story that will warm your heart and bring tears to your eyes. ( )

I Wanna Be Your Shoebox was a sweet story about family and death. The writing is decent but not great. The story gets a bit predictable. The story is definitely for a preteen to teen audience and will lose any older readers try to go through it. The story is nice, but the best part of this book are the characters which are actually very interesting and well fleshed out. ( )

Thirteen-year-old, clarinet-playing, Southern California surfer, Yumi Ruiz-Hirsch, comes from a complex family--her father is Jewish-Japanese, her mother is Cuban, and her parents are divorced--and when her grandfather Saul is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Yumi asks him to tell her his life story, which helps her to understand her own history and identity ( )

Yumi's dad is half Japanese and half Jewish; her mom is Cuban. She is like no one she has ever met. But she fits in fine at school with her musician friends in the orchestra, which is all well and good, until the school announces that there is no longer a budget for the orchestra and it will be disbanded. To make things worse, Yumi's grandfather has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and her mother's boyfriend is cramping her style. Yumi, however, has a few plans. For one thing, if she is going to lose her grandfather, she is going to have her tell him his life story. Secondly, she and her friends will raise money to save the orchestra, but how? In this poignant story of challenge and change Yumi is an eccentric young heroine - a clarinetist who surfs with a punk rock dad and an author mom. Cristina Garcia constructs a powerful story around her, woven together with her grandfather's memories of growing up in Brooklyn. While sad, I Wanna Be Your Shoebox is hopeful, sweet, and truly memorable. ( )