The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Brief Synopsis
Described by others as "Vignettes of a young Latino girl" and her life in Chicago in some previous decade (20th century). She tells about what she sees, experiences, and thinks about through her young perspective.

Category
Fiction, contemporary classic

Why I chose this book:
It's on my 8th grade son's book list for school this year

My personal opinion (the review)

It was easy enough to understand what she was saying (or sometimes referring to in her young language), but sometimes I got lost in all the characters. It didn't have a plot exactly, more just stories or pieces of stories. 

I'm glad I read it (as my child will be reading it later this year in class), but I wouldn't recommend it as a "fun" read.

I originally had thought it was on my 6th grader's reading list and I was a little concerned as I read through it. Some of the things it refers to made me a little unsure about its appropriateness for her tender age/mind, and I considered talking about the book choice with the teacher (because I feel it will bring up discussion on things I'd rather discuss at home). However, it's not inappropriate in the way it is written, and depending on the conversation, the book can be enlightening into the circumstances probably common in that time/place. Then, I checked the syllabus again, and realized it on my 8th grader's reading list for English I for the year. For my 8th grader who is a little more aware of some of the uglier things in life (just by being 2 years older and 3rd year in middle school), I'm ok with him reading and discussing in class. It's not that bad; just too much for a young middle-schooler.

Warnings

Language: possibly one

Violence: yes, but told in past tense (abuse/domestic violence)

"Adult" situations:  yes, but told through the eyes of a youth (so the situation is not explicit) - 

("Adult" situations and other bad stuff referenced, examples: inappropriate contact, shady characters, fortune telling, prejudice, etc.)

Death: yes, but not a known character before death

Movie rating equivalent

PG-13 (it's not as bad as PG-13 movies are usually because it's being told about after it's happened and through a child's eyes, but if it were dramatized, it would be a little edgy.)

Protagonist description

Innocent, hopeful (of a better life), trapped

Point of view of story

First person, Esperanza

Book length

Short

Story flow

Choppy (It's meant to be this way, but I didn't care for it.) 

(Even though the story was penetrating, the disconnected way it's written made it hard for me to follow; too many characters mentioned in passing when some come up again later and some don't. I couldn't tell if the story was continuous chronologically or if it jumped around - also, was it only stories from one year as one of the paragraphs made it sound like, or from multiple years? I felt a little confused sometimes even though I understood what was going on in the moment because I struggled with the intentional lack of flow.)

Grammar and spelling issues

None intentional