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!Luis Alberto Urrea is the author of the widely acclaimed novel The Hummingbird"s...