An Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio
The sounds and the sights of El Barrio and the relationships and the emotions of Puerto-Rican-American family and neighborhood life form the backdrop for the each of the twelve stories that comprise An Island Like You. For the teenagers whose hearts and minds are unmasked in this powerful collection of short stories from Latina author Judith Ortiz Cofer, El Barrio is their home and their culture, steeped in the Puerto Rican traditions of their parents and grandparents, flavored with the promise and bitterness of urban American life. El Barrio is also the world they share. Yet each of the protagonists moves through this world in his or her own way. The range of experience that Cofer brilliantly illuminates through the singular lives of her adolescent characters reveals truths that are sometimes comforting, sometimes startling, but always dancing on the edge of enlightenment. ©1995 Cooperative Children's Book Center
CCBC Age Recommendation: Age 12 and older
Age Range:
Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Grades 9-12 (Age 14 and older)
Format:
Short Stories
Subjects:
City Life
Community
Families
Puerto Ricans
Diversity subjects:
Black/African
Latine
Publishers:
Orchard, Melanie Kroupa Books
Publish Year: 1995
Pages: 165
ISBN: 0-531-06897-8
CCBC Location: Fiction, Cofer