Edition |
First edition. |
Description |
127 pages ; 21 cm |
Contents |
Call me Maria -- Like the first flower -- Letter to Miami -- Scenes from my island past: Beginning of Maria Alegre/Maria Triste -- Memory of Maria Alegre -- Flowering -- Where I am now: Tides, the treasure, and the trash -- Here comes Barrioman -- Spanglish for you and maybe for me -- Spanish class, a lesson in el amor -- Letter to Mami -- Letter to Maria -- Papi-lindo, fifth floor -- More than you know Sabes? -- King of the barrio -- Super-hombre -- Letter to Maria -- What my father likes to eat -- Picture of whoopee -- Dona segura, costurera, third floor -- Bombay, San Juan, and Katmandu -- Golden English: Lessons one and two and two-and-a-half -- American dream -- Power of the Papi-lindo -- Exciting English: I am a poet! She exclaimed -- Letter to Mami, not sent -- American beauty -- Crime in the barrio -- Love in America -- Life sciences: Poem as seen under the microscope -- English declaration: I am the subject of a sentence -- After school, I hear whoopee -- "Silent Night" in Spanish and two glamour shots of my island grandmother -- Math class: Sharing the pie -- Abuela's winter visit -- Abuela's island lament: One-act play -- Who are you today, Maria? -- Translating Abuela: I know who I am -- Translating Abuela's journal: Ice age -- Translating Abuela's journal: After I take her to the museum and the theater -- Translating Abuela's journal: Final entry -- English: I am the simple subject -- My Papi-Azul and me, the brown iguana -- Rent party -- There go the barrio women -- My mother, the rain, el fin -- My father changing colors -- Papi-Azul sings "Asi son las mujeres" -- Seeing red: Asi son los hombres -- Confessions of a non-native speaker. |
Summary |
Fifteen-year-old Maria leaves her mother and their Puerto Rican home to live in the barrio of New York with her father, feeling torn between the two cultures in which she has been raised. Maria is a girl caught between two worlds: Puerto Rico, where she was born, and New York, where she now lives in a basement apartment in the barrio. While her mother remains on the island, Maria lives with her father, the super of their building. As she struggles to lose her island accent, Maria does her best to find her place within the unfamiliar culture of the barrio. Finally, with the Spanglish of the barrio people ringing in her ears, she finds the poet within herself. In lush prose and spare, evocative poetry, Pura Belpre Award-winner Judith Ortiz Cofer weaves a powerful and emotionally satisfying novel, bursting with life and hope. |
Study Program |
Accelerated Reader AR MG+ 5.6 4.0 83118. |
Subject |
Puerto Ricans -- New York (State) -- New York -- Juvenile fiction.
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Puerto Ricans -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction.
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Identity (Psychology) -- Fiction.
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New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction.
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ISBN |
0439385776 |
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