Margus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish by Pablo Cartaya

Reviewed by Alan

  

Marcus Vega was born 11 pounds and 26 inches. That doesn’t seem much, but when you compare it to other babies, you see how big he actually is. Now he is 6 feet tall, 180 pounds, and the owner of a premature mustache. As an eighth grader, that makes you both a threat and a target.

Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish by Pablo Cartaya is, in some ways, an emotional book. It is mostly about Marcus’ dad leaving his family and Marcus wanting to find out more about him. His dad is Puerto Rican, and Marcus doesn’t remember much about him. He left the family years ago and went to Puerto Rico, and Marcus just needs to solve the mystery of his dad. After a little incident in school, Marcus gets suspended, and with perfect timing, his mom decides to take the family on a trip to Puerto Rico.

One reason that I loved this book is that it’s suspenseful. Even though it’s not a crazy adventure book, there were still some things that I really wanted to know, like if his dad were alive, and if he was, if he had married someone else. Also, in one part of the book, the small but mean bully, Stephen Hobert, was teasing Marcus about his size and his brother, Charlie’s Down Syndrome. I was excited because I wanted to know what he would do to Stephen. There are many more tense parts where you will read and want to know what happens, but I can’t tell you all of them, so I guess you will have to read the book!

The second reason that I thought this was a great book was because it was extremely interesting, and you always want to know what the author is about to write next. Like how Charlie was really funny, and Marcus was friendly, so I guess you can’t trust those kinds of superficial stereotypes. The author, Pablo Cartaya, is truly a great writer. He described everything so intricately that I felt like I was in the book. I loved how he wrote about the sixth graders’ faces when they saw how big Marcus was and how they look really scared. I could just picture their faces.

I would definitely give this book a 10/10 because I love realistic fiction and I like how the author describes everything in such detail. This book is also a little emotional, because of all his mixed feelings he has about his dad, which I like, but it’s just a tiny bit, which is perfect. There was more than one climax, and they were all so suspenseful! I would recommend this book to people who like realistic fiction, a little bit of mystery, and a little emotion. If you want to see if Marcus finds his dad or not, read the book to find out!

Viking Books for Young Readers, 272 pages