Originally published in 1984, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is composed of a series of vignettes. She tells the story of Esperanza Cordero, a twelve year old Chicana girl growing up in the Hispanic section of Chicago. Rather than a direct story, the author uses poetic language to describe Esperanza’s life and surroundings but in reality she is writing about the childhood of any child who grew up feeling different because of their Mexican heritage.

The house on Mango Street is a far cry from the house that Esperanza dreamed about and now she dreams of escape and moving on. Meanwhile she describes the area and the people living there in such a way that the reader can picture the neighbourhood in all of it’s diversity. Deceptively simple, this richly written story delivers a powerful message.

The House on Mango Street is described as a YA book, but this is a book whose appeal is universal and should be read by people of all ages. Each vignette is different with some being funny, some sad and some hopeful but all are interesting and paint a vivid picture. ( )

A short collection of hand-picked vignettes telling the story of a lively but poverty-stricken and crime-ridden Latino community. It's surprisingly short, only 100 some pages. You can begin in the middle of things and everything will still make sense, the stories are mostly unconnected, just short and potent written experiences.

I don't myself relate to many of the problems present in the book. Crime isn't particularly rampant in my area, I have relatively steady funds, and I haven't experienced the problems that are more specific to woman. At the beginning everything was too fast and didn't make sense, the ultra-short vignettes didn't really give me a chance to acclimate myself to the books surroundings, so to say. I had a bit of difficulty keeping track of the characters between vignettes too.

Near the end I settled into the book's surroundings and got used to the cast of characters and the general vibe of the book. I got the impression that the book paints a lively community and enjoyed it.

The book eschews quotation marks so I sometimes mix-up narrative and dialogue which is annoying but this does make the prose smooth in a way. ( )

Coming of age story. Latina girl in poor neighborhood of a city. ( )

Stunning language! Beautifully written!

How did I miss this one, now over thirty years since publication? This is the perfect book to read with middle schoolers. It's a stroll through a poor and nurturing Mexican-American neighborhood in Chicago though the eyes of Esperanza, who sees so much but is still too young to understand all the ramifications of the treatment of women and girls, many of whom marry young to escape their jailer fathers and end up in the exact situation they tried to escape. The value of women and girls is tightly tied to physical attributes and macho enforcement of double standards, but Esperanza and her sister and friends, through their creativity and fearlessness, manage to create a gang of sisterhood and find some joy. It's both sad and inspirational. ( )