Sofi Mendoza's Guide to Getting Lost in Mexico

I've traveled off-the-beaten-path in Mexico, so I was curious when I came across this young adult novel called Sofi Mendoza's Guide to Getting Lost in Mexico.

The book, which I was wary of at first because it started off with some sexy, getting-drunk party scenes (it's a book for teens), turned out to be a good read.

It's about a high school girl named Sofi Mendoza who lives in LA. Her friends come up with this plan to tell all their parents they are sleeping over at each other's houses when really they are going to cross the border into Mexico and go to a party at a friend's weekend house in Rosarita.

What Sofi doesn't know is that she's not a U.S. citizen. She makes it into Mexico just fine, but when it's time to come home, she gets stopped by border patrol. She isn't allowed back into the United States and that's when her whole world gets turned upside down.

Via phone calls back to her mom and dad, she gets directed to relatives in Tijuana who she has never met. She must stay with them until her visa/residency/passport situation gets straightened out.

In the end, while I did think some of the boy-meets-girl themes were a bit too over-the-top and racy, as a whole, the descriptions of Tijuana and rural Mexico struck me as right. Plus, the observations Sofi makes about life between the two cultures and countries, and the lessons she learns about education, opportunity and family were wise and true.

Learn more about the author, Malin Alegria.