The House on Mango Street

Cisneros, Sandra.  The House on Mango Street.  New York: Vintage Books, 1984.  Print.

Awards

1985 Before Columbus American Book Award

Annotation

Esperanza describes growing up in a Latino section of Chicago and living in a run-down house on Mango Street, while hoping and working hard to have a better life.

Booktalk

What would you do if you felt you were trapped by the place where you living?  If you wanted a real house, but got a temporary one instead?  If you felt like you were “a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor”?  Esperanza feels like Mango Street is holding her back.  She doesn’t have a best friend, she only has her sister Nenny but she’s annoying most of the time.  She doesn’t have a real house, the kind her family always dreamed of buying with a staircase on the inside.  Instead, she has the small red one on Mango Street where the bricks are crumbling and the front door sticks.  She wants new shoes; she wants a new name; and later, she wants a new job.  Despite all of this, Esperanza knows that the street is teaching her valuable lessons and it is in this house that she transforms from a little girl into a woman. 

Different from other novels, Esperanza tells her growing-up tale in The House on Mango Street in short chapters, or vignettes, each one their own complete story.  Take the journey along with her and find out if she ever leaves that little, red, falling-apart house behind, trading it in for a dream home: “quiet as snow, a space for [her]self to go, clean as paper before the poem”.

Image credit:  http://www.sandracisneros.com/major_works.php?work=house

The God Box

Sanchez, Alex.  The God Box.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007.  Print.

Awards

Annotation

Paul finds himself struggling to come to terms with both his sexuality and his relationship with God after he starts to have feelings for the new student, Manuel.

Booktalk

Paul is a normal teenager.  He has a girlfriend, Angie, and a small group of friends at school.  He likes singing in his church choir and even finds time to attend Bible Club meetings.  Even though Paul’s mom passed away a few years ago, he loves his dad and looks forward to his Abuelita (grandmom) visiting from Mexico.  Paul also has a good relationship with God.  He reads the Bible, attends Mass on Sundays and prays daily.  To help him with his prayers, his dad got him a God Box engraved with the Serenity Prayer.  Paul knows that when he’s anxious or struggling with something, he can write it down and put it in the Box.  Most of the stuff he’s prayed about has turned out ok… 

“But there remained one thing [Paul had] prayed about in a million different ways, giving it up to the Lord over and over again.  Yet no matter how many times [he] entered it into the God Box, the thing still hadn’t gone away”.  Paul may be a normal teenager and a faithful Christian, but Paul also thinks he might be gay and in love with the new kid, Manuel.  Will the God Box help him or will he have to learn to “trust a God bigger than any box” and accept himself for who he is?

Image credit:  http://www.alexsanchez.com/God_Box/The_God_Box_Home_Page.htm