Reader’s Review: Ask My Mood Ring How I Feel

Erica “Chia” Montenegro, a thirteen-year-old girl, is on her summer going into eighth grade. She quickly learns that her mother has breast cancer and is getting a mastectomy. Her summer drags on sad, her friends notice, and her mom gets the mastectomy. Then one day they take a trip to visit caurto de milagros. She makes a promise to God that she will do something good for her mother in exchange for her mom’s health. She finally decides that she will get 500 sponsors to a breast cancer awareness walk. It’s hard for her to balance school, family, friends, and her promise all at the same time. Erica and her sister, Carmen, who is smart, stubborn, counts everything, and just wants to fit in, go to a party where they finally make up after constant fighting over the summer, Erica is running out of time because the awareness walk is coming up, and her friends come through to her and help her find a lot of sponsors to fulfill her promise. She ends up getting 526 names, the breast cancer awareness walk was a success, and Erica realizes that her mom would never be fully cured. I thought it was an easy read, I read it in two days, and it was exciting to see what would come next. Author Diana Lopez chose the plots based off her real life. She went to caurto de milagros and made promesas for a pilot who crashed his plane. Diana’s aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer and participated in a race for the cure.

I liked Ask My Mood Ring How I Feel because I could relate to the main character’s emotions and her friends and family. I liked the setting of the book, and all the events, and plot. Although there were some errors. I think this book would appeal to girls ages 10-13 just because that is how old most of the characters are, and the emotions portrayed in the book are what a girl in that age range would feel. Also a lot of girls in that age range like to read realistic fiction, and with all the young people owning technology, they would enjoy this book because of how it’s updated to modern time (usage of ipods and texting). This book seems similar to “Walks Two Moons” because of how the main character’s feelings and emotions are based off what happened to their mother, and how that affects them.

• Posted by Emily H.