From BookList, September 1, 2009, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

After being sentenced to a year in a California group home, Miguel Casteñeda, 16, breaks out with two other teens, Mong and Rondell. Together, they try to cross the border to Mexico, and Miguel writes in his journal about their journey. His colloquial narrative, laced with insults (but not obscenities), is fast, funny, smart, and heartbreaking as he describes how the three homeless runaways steal, hide, work, fight, bond, and care for each other. Unlike his mates, Miguel is an avid reader, and with the account of their daily struggle, he weaves in references to classics. There may be too much detail for some, but the contemporary survival adventure will keep readers hooked, as will the tension that builds from the story's secrets. What did Miguel do that landed him in the group home? Why won't his mother talk to him? The riveting climax shows, without a heavy message, that the hero's journey is a search for himself. Rochman, Hazel.