Princess Of Las Pulgas
by C. Lee McKenzie
After her father’s death from cancer drains their finances, Carlie’s mother has to sell their cherished oceanfront home and move the family to the other side of the tracks—to dreaded Las Pulgas. Carlie and her younger brother Keith must now attend a tough urban high school instead of their former elite school, and on Carlie’s first day, she runs afoul of edgy K.T., the Latina tattoo girl who’s always ready for a fight. Even worse, a handsome seventeen-year-old named Juan nicknames her Princess when he detects her aloof attitude towards her new classmates. What they don’t know is that Carlie isn’t really aloof; she’s just in mourning for her father and almost everything else that mattered to her. Carlie’s revered English teacher suggests she’ll like her new classmates if she just gives them a chance; then he cajoles her into taking over the role of Desdemona in the junior class production of Othello, opposite Juan. Keith, who becomes more sullen by the day, spray paints insults all over the gym, acting out his anger over the family’s situation. Even their cat Quicken goes missing, sending Carlie and Keith on a search into the orchard next to their seedy garden apartment complex. They’re met by a cowboy toting a rifle who ejects them at gunpoint from his property. But when Carlie finds him amiably having coffee with their mom the next day—when he’s returned her cat—she begins to realize that nothing is what it seems in Las Pulgas.
Praise for Princess Of Las Pulgas:
"Brimming with loss, hope, and the enduring power of love, The Princess of Las Pulgas is that rare book you will hold close to your heart and never forget."
—Michelle Zink, author of Prophecy of the Sisters
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Pub Date: December 15, 2010