Themes: Hi-Lo, High school, neighborhoods, family, loyalty, friendship, urban teen fiction, self esteem, parental relationships, life's pressures, running away, prejudice. More than entertainment, these books can be a powerful coping tool when a struggling reader connects with the text. Paperback books look and feel like a trade edition and are complete in just under 200 pages. Mona Lisa is average. Not pretty. Not ugly. She's very insecure and lacks self confidence. Mona's mom harps on her to start dating. Then Julio begins to show an interest in her. He's on the track team and a close friend of Ernesto's. When Mona returns Julio's interest, though, her mom is upset because Julio is not from a good family. He's poor. His father is practically a bum. They live in a mobile home, and not the plush kind. Not the type of "people" Mrs. Corsella approves of. And she hatches a plan to get her daughter to date someone more socially acceptable. Mona becomes defiant, running away from home. Her mom is convinced she's been kidnapped by Julio. But Julio turns out to be the hero when Mona calls him to rescue her in Phoenix after she is approached by a smarmy guy and loses all of her cash.