And Now Miguel

This story takes place in the recent past near Taos, Mexico in a village called Los Cordovas. Since this story takes place in Los Cordovas, people talk in Spanish and in English and that's why they have Spanish names. This book is mostly about a twelve year-old boy named Miguel, his dad (Old Blas), and his brother, Gabriel. Miguel wants to go with his dad and other members of his family to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains where they go with their sheep to feed them green grass each year. In my opinion I liked how the places the story took place were arranged, and how it was taken place in real places. I thought it was a VERY good book because the characters in this book sound really real. I would recommend this book because it is really realistic and because it talks about people who would act like we do now.

This Newberry Award winner is a classic that may best be appreciated by readers with patience for a slower lifestyle. This is not for action-adventure junkies waiting for a roller coaster ride of thrills and suspense. I enjoyed this book because I am familiar with the setting in Northern New Mexico around Taos, which is well described in the book. For hundreds of years ranch owners have sent their shepherds and sheep to the green grazing fields in the local mountains during the summer months. The desire to go to the mountains with the sheep would have been a common personal conflict with older children. As a work of realistic fiction, it portrays a real lifestyle with real dreams and conflicts in a time and place before our modern technology, noise, and adrenaline surges of a rushed, stressed based lifestyle. This book is for the sophisticated reader who is looking for a good story in a work of historical fiction.