Fifteen Candles

by Veronica Chambers

Overview

Miami, Florida, is about to get even hotter! When four friends decide to help throw a quince for the new girl in town, Amigas Incorporated is born.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781423146094
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	05/29/2012
Series:	Amigas Series , #1
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	885,745
Lexile:	800L (what's this?)
File size:	541 KB
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Veronica Chambers is a prolific author, best known for her critically acclaimed memoir, Mama's Girl, which has been course adopted by hundreds of high schools and colleges throughout the country. Her other nonfiction books include Kickboxing Geishas: How Japanese Women Are Changing Their Nation and The Joy of Doing Things Badly: A Girl's Guide to Love, Life and Foolish Bravery. She has also written more than a dozen books for children and spent two seasons as an executive story editor for the CW's hit series, Girlfriends. A graduate of Simon's Rock College at Bard, she lives with her husband and daughter in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 7–10—Alicia Cruz has big dreams. She's working as a summer intern at City Hall in order to polish up her college résumé when she has a chance to help a friend plan her quinceañera. The teen has four close friends, each with a distinct style and strength, which makes the group work well together. As Alicia begins her research on quinces, she decides that the friends have what it takes to start a business. She proposes the plan to them, and they immediately begin to launch their Amigas enterprise. However, as the time for the party draws near, the partners experience some issues. Chambers does a good job of developing five characters who are working through some growing pains but come out of the situation triumphantly. The narrative is a little heavy on food descriptions and designer-label name-dropping, but it shows practical elements of learning to mature. The author gives a nod to the cultural implications of quinces, as well as to the fact that not everyone can afford a big party. Instead, many people have to plan and budget, something the Amigas run into during their preparations. A light read that will be of most interest to Hispanic populations.—Emily Garrett Cassady, North Garland High School, Garland, TX

School Library Journal

A guilty-pleasure page-turner introduces a wealthy and spoiled Cuban-American teenager, Alicia Cruz, 15, whose passion to start her own business will take her and her closest friends, Carmen, Jamie and Gaz, on a roller coaster when she decides to organize Sarita's quinceanera party. But not a traditional one. Alicia has her own avant-garde ideas, and although she did not have her own quince, she is determined to become an entrepreneur in the party industry serving Miami's exclusive high-class society. Alicia's parents, the deputy mayor and a judge, witness how Alicia turns her internship at the City Hall into her own business headquarters with predictable consequences. A frivolous but charming story that accurately presents the antics, motivations and dreams of a very small sector of the diverse Latino juvenile population in South Florida, one that adores pop culture and fashion icons but at the same time remains respectful of conventional family values and traditions-just right as the opener for this Spanish-accented chick-lit series. (Fiction. 13-16)

Kirkus Reviews