Synopses & Reviews
From the award-winning author of AN ISLAND LIKE YOU, winner of the Pura Belpre Award
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, Cofer weaves a powerful novel, bursting with life and hope.
Synopsis
Maria is a girl torn between cultures: born in Puerto Rico, but living in the barrio in Paterson, New Jersey. Maria's mother remains in Puerto Rico, but Maria lives with her father, a super in their apartment building in America. She is shuttled back and forth between the two of them, and struggles with who she really is -- a Puerto Rican, or an American?