A review by christiana
Falling Short by Ernesto Cisneros

3.0

I was a little worried this would be a hard hitter for middle grade since it starts with some rough issues the two main characters and their families are dealing with, but there was a really nice balance of sweetness with Marco and Isaac's friendship that I think lightened up the book in those moments. The 6th graders read really real to me and I still laugh a little when I think of how the super academic kids didn't know to hit the rock and would cover their hand over the other person's fist and shake it like a handshake (I wanted it to catch on the way sometimes these things do with other kids at school that didn't know it was a mistake!).