After studying poetry at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in the mid-1970s, Sandra Cisneros moved back home to Chicago and taught former dropouts at the Latino Youth High School. All of these influences—the city, the students, the poetic approach to language—are palpable in The House on Mango Street, the series of semi-autobiographical vignettes that coalesced to form the Mexican American author’s first novel. A modern classic that has survived several misguided banning campaigns to become a staple of English syllabi, The House on Mango Street filters the life of a working-class Latinx neighborhood through the perspective of 12-year-old Esperanza Cordero, a bright girl who’s quickly absorbing tough lessons about racism, inequality and growing up female. In concise yet impressionistic prose that never talks down to young readers, Cisneros masterfully balances gravity with humor and universal rites of passage with cultural specificity. —Judy Berman
Buy Now: The House on Mango Street on Bookshop | Amazon
- Why Trump’s Message Worked on Latino Men
- What Trump’s Win Could Mean for Housing
- The 100 Must-Read Books of 2024
- Sleep Doctors Share the 1 Tip That’s Changed Their Lives
- Column: Let’s Bring Back Romance
- What It’s Like to Have Long COVID As a Kid
- FX’s Say Nothing Is the Must-Watch Political Thriller of 2024
- Merle Bombardieri Is Helping People Make the Baby Decision