Who is the narrator, can she or he read minds, and, more importantly, can we trust her or him?
First Person (Central)—Manny Hernandez
Manny is the big cheese in this narrative, and he's our narrator, too. We get the whole tale from his perspective, so as long as we're reading, we're stuck inside this guy's head and we are not getting out.
The cool thing about being inside Manny's point of view is that we get to know what he's thinking basically all the time. So when he's feeling happy about Miss Van der Meer talking to him, we're in on it, and when he's feeling nervous about Lencho's fight, we get the inside scoop on that, too.
But there are also some drawbacks to being stuck inside the main character's mind. Since Manny isn't a mind reader, he's only inside his own head—and that means we don't get to know the other characters particularly well.
However, while in some books first-person narration is really limiting, in this book we're in luck, because Manny is pretty great at guessing what others are thinking. Just check out the moment when Mr. Hart drops Manny off at home. There's some awkward tension between Mr. H and Dad, and thanks to Manny's perceptiveness we get the scoop on how each of these guys feels:
You could tell Mr. Hart wanted to say something stupid, like how neat the yard was or what a fine impression our project house had on him. If he had, I think Dad would have mowed him down. (3.47)
Importantly, no one is even really talking in this scene. Did you notice that? But all the same, Manny tells us what Mr. H "wanted to say" and how he figures his pops would react. He's not letting his first-person narration hold us back in our reading one bit.