Everything about Kalvin King’s life is finally “hella” good. The seventeen-year-old high school Junior from Oakland has seemingly overcome the trauma of losing his mother at an early age. An unfortunate accident, plus his father’s need to relocate to South Central Los Angeles completely destabilizes Kalvin emotionally, bringing out pain he’d kept bottled up. Perhaps a fresh start in the City of Angels is exactly what Kalvin needs?

Kalvin gets a rude awakening at his new school, Lincoln. Mexican American/Chicano males (homies and gangsters) mean-mug him, and call him, “m...te,” the equivalent of the “N” word. He saves the beautiful and studious Brenda Ramirez, a second-generation Mexican American, during a fight. He tries courting her, but is met with racial opposition that peaks in an all-out school riot.

Like Adding Pepper to Beans follows the complicated and interwoven high school lives of Kalvin and Brenda, two teenagers who find themselves caught up in interracial conflict between Blacks and Mexicans. When they suddenly develop feelings for each other, they are confronted with some ugly truths, including prejudice from their own family members. Determined to build bridges rather than succumb to peer pressure or historical bias, Kalvin and Brenda learn about each other’s cultures and worlds, and grow closer in the process.

For its realistic fiction, Like Adding Pepper to Beans is the perfect addition to an ethnic studies program at the high school level. Or a great read for anyone seeking to learn more about Black and Latino racial tension.