Be careful growing up in the green, wet, mango-sweet Mexican village of Rosario, where dead corpses rise up out of cathedral walls; where vast silver mines beneath the town occasionally collapse, causing a whole section of the village to drop out of sight; where Mr. Mendoza wields his paintbrush as the town's self-appointed conscience.

Magic realism, you say to yourself. Luis Alberto Urrea says, "No, NOT magical realism. It's simply how kids grow up in Mexico. Especially if you're a boy." And the part about Mr. Mendoza is really true: He brandishes his magical paintbrush everywhere, painting graffiti to singe the hearts and souls of trouble-making boys (especially if he catches a boy peeping at the girls bathing in the river). He'll steal the villain's pants and paint PERVERT on his naked buttocks. And, finally, one day Mr. Mendoza's paintbrush creates a miraculous event that no one in Rosario ever forgets!