Becoming Naomi León
Pam Muñoz Ryan
 Naomi and Owen Soledad León are the children of Santiago Zamora León, a Mexican fisherman and craver, and Terri Lynn, a troubled American woman who lost her parents in a car accident when she was a teenager, making them half American-half Mexican, with Naomi taking the Mexican side and Owen taking the American side. The family live in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, however Santiago and Terri Lynn had a lot of arguments, which is thinning their marriage. When Naomi was four and Owen was one, and when Santiago was fishing, Terri Lynn went shopping in Tijuana when she supposed to look after Naomi and Owen, leaving the kids to baby sit themselves at a motel. No one could find Terri Lynn for days and a hurricane suddenly hit after she left. Naomi and Owen were rescued by Santiago and taken to a church, where Santiago left them in the care of the church's priests to move his boat, but he got lost a sea on the way and was rescued over a week later. Meanwhile Terri Lynn returned and took the kids to Lemon Tree, California, where she once lived with her widowed grandmother, Mary Outlaw. After arriving at her apartment, Terri Lynn told her that she couldn't handle two kids by herself, especially with one of them deformed (Owen) and left the kids with Mary so she could find her life, and never returned, forcing Mary to raise the children on her own. Soon after Mary took the kids to live in the Avacado Acres Trailer Rancho trailer park so Owen would have room to be a "wild monkey". Mary became attached to the kids and feared of losing them as she enrolled them in school and got doctors for them when Terri Lynn didn't return. Seven years later, Naomi, now eleven years old and now known as Naomi Soledad León Outlaw, has a lot to deal with, such as having the "funniest last name in the universe" for one. Then there are her clothes (sewn in polyester by Gram), her difficulty speaking up, and her status at school as "nobody special". She also doesn't remember her parents but knows that her father is Mexican and her mother is American, and still has scars from her mother's abandonment years before and also thinks that her father never wanted her and Owen, who is now eight and is still physically deformed. She and Owen still live with Mary, who is now known as Gram, in Lemon Tree, California in the trailer Baby Beluga (named by Gram) and in the trailer park consumed with the three things Naomi's good at, soap carving, worrying, and making lists. Naomi and Owen's life with Gram and their loving neighbors in Lemon Tree is happy and peaceful, despite being 'left-overs', until the day Terri Lynn, who now renamed herself Skyla Jones, suddenly reappears after the seven years of being gone. With her arrival, she starts to stir up all sorts of questions. Naomi and Owen are both thrilled on her arrival and they try to get to know her, and Naomi had many questions for her sudden return, along with the sadness that Skyla wasn't anywhere near the mothers that she had imagined. During their mother's stay, Skyla is buying things for Naomi and Gram and never gets anything for Owen, and her mood has been changing mysteriously, which confuses only Naomi. Also what confused Naomi more is Skyla insulting her every time she speaks quietly and ordering her to talk louder. Also Gram seemed to always be angry with Skyla, and she fears that something might go wrong, which adds more confusion to Naomi, along with the thought that Gram is hiding something, but she very little knew that things were going to take turns from the thrilling to the worse. Gram later tells her and Owen the truth, but they don't really know the truth, until the day of the conference where Skyla promised to come and meet Naomi's new school friend, Blanca, who came from Atascadero, California and was full Mexican, but she didn't. That day Naomi realized that her mother is really an alcoholic and that her father really wanted her and Owen but Skyla didn't let him keep them. On Thanksgiving Day, Skyla's boyfriend, Clive, comes over for the holiday. However things went bad when Skyla and Clive tell Naomi since Clive was moving to Las Vegas because of his job, that they decided that she was a perfect friend for his daughter, Elizabeth, who Clive renamed Sapphire. Gram doesn't allow it which seems to anger Clive, and things went more worse when Clive takes one of Naomi's soap carvings and uses it to wash his hands, which made Naomi upset that one of her precious cravings was destroyed, but before things went more worse Owen played checkers with the neighbors, which he always won at. When Skyla played, he let her win some. However when she found out, her mood changes and she orders him to play like he means it, which Owen did and he won a game, which angers Skyla, causing her to insult him about his deformities and his love for wearing tape across his shirt, saying he didn't 'look' smart. However after Clive played with him and lost three games, he thought that his deformities can be used for getting money in gambling, which angers Gram and the neighbors. When Clive and Skyla are about to leave, Naomi notices beer in the back seat of their car, which made her question if Skyla was going to drink again. Skyla, knowing that Naomi saw it, tells her to mind her own business before they leave, leaving Naomi increasingly confused. After going back to school on Monday, Naomi tells Blanca about what happened, and with that Blanca, now worried about the frightening mood swings and threats Skyla makes to Naomi and Owen, tells Naomi that she needs to wake up before something bad happens, since Naomi didn't know for sure if Skyla was really going to drink the beer, but Blanca informed her that Skyla wouldn't have told her to mind her own business if the beer was just for Clive. However Naomi kept refusing Blanca's information to tell Gram, saying that she had enough worries right now, and won't tell her unless she knew for sure. Three days later Owen's regular check-up at the doctor's was coming up, and Skyla volunteered to take Owen since Gram had to help one of her neighbors, Fabiola, with a bride's wedding gown, and she promised Gram that everything will end well. At the doctor's, things take a turn for the worse when Skyla's mood swings again and she thought of Owen as a "Blem" when the doctors told her that he was going to be an FLK (Funny Looking Kid) for a few more years, and she was furious that they couldn't do anything else about him for now. When they got back to Baby Beluga, Skyla suddenly becomes more infuriated and tells Naomi that Clive's job finally came through in Las Vegas, and she was coming with them, but Naomi knew that the only two reasons that they want to take her is because they only wanted her to be a babysitter for Sapphire, and get welfare from having her. Naomi, knowing that her mother was drinking again, refuses to go with her by telling her about her past mistakes, what kind of harm she caused, and the good things Gram did for Owen and her unlike Skyla, which greatly angers Skyla that she slaps Naomi across the face in front of Owen, and she threatens Naomi that if she didn't come with her to Las Vegas, something bad would happen to Gram on account of her. Horrified, and now thinking that Skyla would hurt or kill Gram, Naomi successfully managed to get herself and Owen away from her and they immediately go to tell Gram. Skyla follows to claim Naomi and even though she thinks she has the right to take Naomi because she is her mother, Gram tells Skyla that she would fight for Naomi, telling her that she would go to the end of the earth to protect Naomi, even if it meant going to court, and get the rightful guardianship over her and Owen. Skyla however doesn't take in what Gram said and threatens her that if Naomi's things weren't packed and she wasn't ready in a few days, she would arrive with a police officer, believing that the police will never believe her grandmother's story. Then Skyla informs Gram that Naomi didn't belong to her, and she was her daughter before she leaves, leaving both Naomi and Owen terrified after they realized Skyla's true nature: an abusive and unstable alcoholic mother who only wanted to claim Naomi, but not Owen because of his deformed appearance. Realizing that the law was on Skyla's side and determined of saving Naomi and Owen, Gram takes the kids on a whirl-wind journey accompanied by their neighbors Fabiola and Bernardo Morales (who were also there when Skyla threatened to take Naomi) to the city of Oaxaca, Mexico and stay with the Morales's relatives. There they go on a quest in which Naomi is determined to find their father Santiago, whom Owen and Naomi have not seen in many years. During their stay Owen becomes friends with Fabiola's niece's son, Rubén, and the two were rarely seen apart. Naomi even thought of Rubén's mother, Graciela, as her mother, because of her kindness and her desire to find her life with Rubén after the divorce with her husband, rather than be away from him to find her life like Skyla. They ask many people if they knew a man named Santiago Zamora León, which to Naomi's despair they don't, but she keeps believing that he will come, since he always came to carve in the Night of the Radishes competition. The group participate in the Las Posadas and the Night of the Radishes competition, where the men have Naomi carve a lion. After winning the competition in second place, Santiago shows up, but when he sees Gram, Owen, and Naomi, he runs off, and Naomi runs after him after Gram told her it was him. Unable to catch up with him, the downcast Naomi goes back to Gram and kept asking why Santiago ran. Later that night Santiago returned, and Owen and Naomi have a tearful and joyful moment with him, with Naomi explaining the situation. The next day, Gram tells Naomi and Owen that they had to leave because of court, and Naomi asks Santiago if he could move with them, but he told her that he has to stay where he lives in Mexico because of his job. After Naomi promises to come visit him he told her 'Be brave, Naomi León' before they leave. When they go to court, Naomi, remembering what her father told her, tells the judge everything from the beginning: after Gram was widowed, Naomi and Owen's life with her, when Skyla came back after seven years of abandonment and always ignored Owen because of his appearance, the incidents at teachers' conferences, Thanksgiving Day, and at Children's Hospital, when Skyla slapped and threatened Naomi, and when she went to Mexico and found her father. After telling the whole court that she wants to live with Gram and Owen because she belonged in Lemon Tree, she loved Gram, Owen, Blanca, and her school, and she didn't want to go with Skyla because of the reasons she explained, the judge grants full guardianship to Gram, since she didn't want to separate relatives who have lived together all their lives, especially if there are loving and responsible relatives, like Gram and Santiago as she pointed out, despite Skyla trying to lie to the judge that Naomi was making up stories in order to get her. After the happy trio return to live their peaceful life in Lemon Tree with Gram saying that Skyla might try to take them back to court someday. Naomi is then reunited with Blanca when she goes to back to school, and after school that day she tells Naomi that her voice is louder. In the epilogue, Naomi narrates that nothing much as changed and she (Naomi) was different. Naomi supposed that she and Owen might long for Skyla a little, and they wondered what it could have been like if she had been different. Gram said it wasn't likely if Skyla would come visit them, but Naomi wouldn't mind. Naomi also narrates the time she found her father, who loved her and Owen without being nearby and tells the reader to imagine all that love floating in the air, waiting to land on someone's life. She says next that even though they found their parents, their lives were with Gram. In Mexico while Santiago was teaching her about the magic, Naomi saw it worked on people as well. She refers Skyla as 'a mother with a cat's claws,' (due to her troubled life and the violence she did on Naomi and Owen), next she refers Santiago as 'a father with a lion's heart', (because of his possession of exceptional courage and fortitude), referring Gram as 'a great-grandmother with a bird's protective-outstretched wings',(due to her protectiveness of Naomi and Owen) and referring herself as 'a mouse with a lioness voice' (as revealed near the epilogue). Naomi then realized she was becoming 'who she was meant to be', a mouse with a lioness' voice and the Naomi Soledad León Outlaw of her wildest dreams.