PACIFIC CROSSING

Lincoln Mendoza makes new friends when he flies to Japan as part of a summer exchange program. Soto smoothes Lincoln's path: the money is easily raised; the Chicano teenager is intelligent, eager to please; and he adapts easily to life on a small Japanese farm (it reminds him of the migrant labor stories his relatives tell) and to practicing a martial art, embracing Japanese customs, and sharing his own with his friendly temporary family. Soto salts the text with Spanish and Japanese terms, defined in context and in glossaries at the end. A pleasant, easygoing story about sharing cultures, like David Klass's Breakaway Run (1987) but without the complication of a stressful family situation. (Fiction. 10-13)