Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Life in a Puerto Rican barrio has its ups and downs. The community is close-knit, but the money is scarce.
With bad influences in the forms of peers, pressure from boyfriends, and the loss of friends, things can get difficult. Each teen has their own way of dealing with things - and this is a book of their stories.
An eye-opening collection of short stories that doesn't put rose-colored glasses on the reality of at-risk teenagers. The stories are believable and touching, the teens in the book are easy to relate to, and the author does a great job of painting the small-town barrio.
Readers who like realistic fiction and books with stories told by teens will enjoy reading this book.
Reviewed by: Kira M
Click Here to see more reviews about: An Island Like You
Rita is exiled to Puerto Rico for a summer with her grandparents after her parents catch her with a boy. Luis sits atop a six-foot mountain of hubcaps in his father's junkyard, working off a sentence for breaking and entering. Sandra tries to reconcile her looks to the conventional Latino notion of beauty. And Arturo, different from his macho classmates, fantasizes about escaping his community. They are the teenagers of the barrio - and this is their world.
Praise for AN ISLAND LIKE YOU:
"[Cofer's] contemporary teenage voices are candid, funny, weary, and irreverent in these stories about immigrant kids caught between their Puerto Rican families and the pull and push of the American dream." - Booklist (starred review)
"The Caribbean flavor of the tales gives them their color and freshness, but the narratives have universal resonance. . . ." -Horn Book
Awards for AN ISLAND LIKE YOU:
A Recipient of the Pura Belpre Award (ALSC/REFORMA)
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
A School of Library Journal Best Book of the Year
An ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
