KARITO KIDS: Pita

I tend to forget how much I love Pita until I read her book. I remember this happening when I first read them, too. I didn't expect her to be a favorite, but she might be my fave character after Gia.

Pita comes from a very wealthy Mexican family. I read this last night, but I think her father was a senator and her mom a former model.

So they've got money and status.

Pita, however, is not your stereotypical spoiled girl at all.

Pita just wants to get out of her "cage" and be allowed to actually do more things. She's not being ridiculous about this either. Her mother is easily the most terrible parent in all these books so far. She's obsessed with status and appearances and doesn't care anything about substance. Pita gets bitched at for wearing a cowboy hat, wearing jeans, going riding with the daughter of someone who works for her grandfather. Bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch.

Her dad seems a bit better, especially when he opens up to her and tells her their family history.

Pita's mystery is that her beloved horse disappeared when they arrived at her grandfather's ranch. There's a search for her with some red herrings and family secrets mixed in. She's found, of course, and so is someone else.

Very vague, I know, but I don't want to give it away.

Pita's book is odd to me, because I really enjoyed it, even though it's even worse than Ling's when it comes to teaching us about the location. You learn next to nothing about Mexico from this book. Except for the section at the end. Pita talks about food a couple times and Quinceañera, but the most you learn about Mexico is actually bad, because it's about the old families that think they're better than others and the great differences in wealth between the classes.

The odd part is that I didn't care that I wasn't learning or that we weren't going to see any other locations in Mexico. I got caught up in Pita and her story and I cared about that.

So yes, the book is pretty much a complete failure if you're looking at it from a teaching about a different culture standpoint, but Pita makes it work because she's such a loveable character. Her grandfather is a good character, too, and the family history makes it worth reading. I just wish someone had told her mom to shut the fuck up and get over herself. She's such a snobby bitch.