Loves Me, Loves Me Not Book

Maggie and her best friend Suzie are "dos chicas", living in Miami and sophomores in high school. Maggie's crush is Zach, the ace basketball player, tall, bloond and blue-eyed, who always tries to sit next to her in German. Maggie is hoping beyond hope to become Zach's girlfriend. But Maggie also knows what she wants to do with her life. She wants to be a nurse, help patients, be useful. She works hard to get Zach to notice her. Meanwhile, Suzie is enamored of Carlos, whose new friend is Justin. How Maggie and Suzie deal with their first "boyfriends" also reveal what they think of themselves.

Bernardo has captured the multicultural tone and feel of Miami. The basic theme of this book is how (adolescent) love is often blinding to the reaily of aspects of relationships. A great element of this novel is the best friend relationship between Maggie and Suzie -- how precious their friendship is and what they need to do to maintain the relationship, how their relationship to boys should not be a point of contention In essence, Bernardo focuses on adolescent relationships and does it truly well: she considers how blinding they can be; how important they can be; the issues of prejudice and racism, as well as sexuality.

I highly recommend this book to YAs, particularly for those who are interested in multicultural and prejudice..