On the eve of World War II, Alejandro comes of age on his family's South Texas farm, known as Chicken Foot Farm because of how his mother marks her chicks. "Mamá held the chick against her breast and splayed its left foot between her thumb and index finger. With her free hand she … quickly cut off the end of the chick's shortest toe." Rich with the customs and traditions of rural, Mexican-American life, this book depicts a multi-generational family in flux as change crawls relentlessly toward their land and lifestyle. As the seasons come and go and misfortunes befall the family, Alejandro learns life lessons: the importance of family, honesty, hard work, and compassion. When the kitchen burns down one night, Alejandro feels they have lost something integral to their family. But his father promises they will build another kitchen, the new one better than the old. As Abuela Luciana ages, she begins to behave erratically, burning tortillas, forgetting to add water to the beans she is cooking, and even disappearing from the farm. She is certain someone has cursed her. How can the family cure her when she is the curandera, the one who has always taken care of them? Above all, Alejandro works hard to win his father's approval, even though Papá overlooks him in favor of the eldest son, Ernesto, who Papá says will inherit the farm. When Ernesto joins the Army, the family must face the possibility that he may not return as the entire country is thrown into the uncertainty of war.
"Sly, gentle, and written in a lively, simple language, these are stories that will draw readers into the particulars of a culture while capturing universal family dramas…"
