Ana Maria Reyes Does Not Live in a Castle

Ana Maria Reyes, eleven, dreams of a future filled with music and a good education — the kind she can get at the Eleanor School, not the local Bronx schools. Her intelligence and piano skills may win her a scholarship. When her parents announce she and her three sisters will have a new brother or sister soon, Ana sees her dreams being snuffed out. Her parents are already too busy to come to most of her activities, and money is always a problem. Even though Papi is a lawyer, he works for poor people and doesn’t make much. When Tia Nona visits from the Dominican Republic, inviting everyone to her impending wedding, the girls are excited to meet relatives they’ve only heard of, and Ana wants to be just like her rich, successful aunt. But things are not always what they seem.

Author Hilda Eunice Burgos has written a very true-to-life story of what it must be like to live as Ana Maria does in New York with a large family in a small apartment, struggling to build a better life. The voice is pitch perfect and the story compelling. The writing is exceptional. A great book for middle-graders.