Publication Information: NY: Vintage, 1984.
ISBN #0-679-73477-5

Suggested Module/Thematic Use:

The Immigrant Experience in the United States
(possibly) Children's Rights

Author biography: Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago in 1954, the daughter of a Mexican father and a Mexican-American mother. She had six brothers. She now lives in San Antonio, Texas, where she is "nobody's mother and nobody's wife." The author as well of short stories and poetry, she has worked as a teacher, a poet-in-the-schools, and an arts administrator.

Summary: A young girl, Esperanza Cordero, child of immigrants, grows up in poverty in a house she never wanted to live in. Though she dreams of escaping the neighborhood, the boys who torment her and the girls who give up on their dreams too easily, she finds that the neighborhood and especially her sister are also sources of strength. The book is told through vignettes, each one of which is like a prose poem.

Target Audience: High School (note: this book is short and very readable so accessible to 9th through 12th graders)

Genre: Fiction

Length: 110 pages

Availability: Paperback $9.95. Available at Borders and on Amazon.com

Commentary: There is an implied rape scene, handled with sensitivity and care, of the young girl who is the narrator.