This story seamlessly weaves two culturaswhile letting each remain intact, just as Miguel is learning to do with his own life. Eventually, Tía Lola and the children swap English and Spanish ejercicios, but the true lesson is 'mutual understanding.' Peppered with Spanish words and phrases, Alvarez makes the reader as much a part of the 'language' lessons as the characters. She can also cook exotic food, dance (anywhere, anytime), plan fun parties, and tell enchanting stories. Tía Lola, however, knows a language that defies words she quickly charms and befriends all the neighbors. The last thing Miguel wants, as he's trying to fit into a predominantly white community, is a flamboyant aunt who doesn't speak a word of English. When Tía Lola arrives to help the family, Miguel and his hermana, Juanita, have just moved from New York City to Vermont with their recently divorced mother. Renowned Latin American writer Alvarez has created another story about cultural identity, but this time the primary character is 11-year-old Miguel Guzmán.

In it, Macaulay confirms that his is not a profession, nor an obsession, but a love affair of sketching and architecture. An aerial map of Rome ('not to scale') and brief, conversational descriptions recap the highlights of the pigeon's trip. 'Yes' is the answer to an unstated question that hangs, tantalizingly, in the air. The views of Rome are so encompassing that by the time the pigeon delivers its message to a draughtsman hunched over a drawing, readers have almost forgotten the bird's errand. Along with labeled monuments are more mundane sightings: On the street, a dog drinks from a fire hydrant while conversations take place in cafes and on cell phones. Macaulay has created a pen-and-ink sketchbook of ancient buildings in the modern city, stringing together black-and-white drawings of landmarks with the thinnest of red lines (to indicate the pigeon's flight). Before readers can say S.P.Q.R., the pigeon has made the unusual decision of abstaining from the shortest path between two points in favor of a whirling flight through Rome. This bird's-eye view of a grand city's architecture begins when a maiden ties a message onto the leg of a homing pigeon. In another of his explorations of the traversal between A and B (Shortcut, 1995, and a detour: Why the Chicken Crossed the Road, 1987), Macaulay takes the scenic route and concludes, perhaps, that all roads really do lead to Rome.

Rome Antics by David Macaulay