Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    La Casa en Mango Street
    Unavailable
    La Casa en Mango Street
    Unavailable
    La Casa en Mango Street
    Audiobook2 hours

    La Casa en Mango Street

    Written by Sandra Cisneros

    Narrated by Liliana Valenzuela

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Celebrado desde su publicación inicial como el relato clásico de una muchada del barrio latino de Chicago, La casa en Mango Street has sido elogadio por los críticos, acogido por los niños y sus padres y abuelos y estudiado por todas partes, desde escuelas primarias en las grandes ciudades hasta universidades por todo el país. Ahora por primera vez en una edición en español, traducido por una de las más reconocidas figures literarias de México, La casa en Mango Street está a la disposición de los miles de lectores latinos a quien este libro ha dado voz.

    A veces desgarrador, a veces intensamente alegre, La casa en Mango Street relata la historia de Esperanza Cordero, en cuyo barrio conviven realidades crueles y una belleza severa. Esperanza no quiere pertenecer-ni a su barrio ni a las bajas expectativas que el mundo le ofrece. La historia de Esperanza es la de una joven intentando alcanzar su propio poder e inventar su propio futuro.
    LanguageEspañol
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 30, 2005
    ISBN9780739322826
    Unavailable
    La Casa en Mango Street
    Author

    Sandra Cisneros

    Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago in 1954. Internationally acclaimed for her poetry and fiction, she has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Lannan Literary Award and the American Book Award, and of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the MacArthur Foundation. Cisneros is the author of The House on Mango Street, Woman Hollering Creek, Loose Woman, and My Wicked Ways. She lives in the Southwest.

    Related to La Casa en Mango Street

    Related audiobooks

    Coming of Age Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Nace La Colección Otras Voces De Alianza

      Apr 1, 2024

      Esta colección se nutrirá de los mejores narradores y de las historias más relevantes, sean de ficción o de no ficción, autobiografía, rescates… En definitiva, toda literatura que interesa y que formará parte de los clásicos del mañana En VOCES se un

      4 min read

    • Article

      Gabriel García Marquez: Desde Macondo A Cien Años De Soledad, Uno De Los Más Grandes Escritores Latinoamericanos

      Apr 22, 2023

      Obra cumbre del llamado realismo mágico, la mítica fundación de Macondo por los Buendía y el devenir de la aldea y de la estirpe de los fundadores hasta su extinción constituye el núcleo de un relato maravillosamente mágico y poético, tanto por su de

      13 min read

    • Article

      Novedades Editoriales

      Feb 4, 2021

      Juan Ramón Santos Fundación José Manuel Lara, 88 pp., 8 € »Todo comenzó el día en que me dio por ladrarle a la Bulldog», empieza esta novela que muestra a las claras el humor negro e ingenio de su autor, Juan Ramón Santos, que mediante una sátira rin

      41 min read

    • Article

      Autoras Imperdibles

      Apr 30, 2021

      DE KAMALA HARRIS Editorial: Planeta Es la mujer del momento. El hito que supone su llegada a la vicepresidencia de Estados Unidos por su género y su origen racial se complementa con su manera de ver el mundo. En su autobiografía nos platica su trayec

      1 min read

    • Article

      RECOMENDACIONES Navideñas

      Dec 7, 2023

      Daniel Díez Carpintero SLOPER, 276 PP., 19 € Daniel Díez Carpintero (Madrid, 1979) es autor de un par de libros de cuentos y ahora presenta su primera novela, sobre un niño que se hace hombre, desde que empieza teniendo una altura de 120 centímetros

      85 min read

    • Article

      Narrativa Española

      Jan 10, 2022

      Javier Pérez Andújar ANAGRAMA, 256 PP., 18,90 € Con esta obra, el autor ganó en fechas recientes el Premio Herralde de Novela. Gira en torno a cuatro artistas de una generación sin suerte que, tras haber perdido los sueños e ideales, se encuentran re

      5 min read

    • Article

      Ficción Especulativa

      Feb 3, 2020

      Ficción Especulativa
      3 min read

    • Article

      ¡su Herencia Está a La Deriva!

      Mar 6, 2023

      Catalogada “salvaje”, por sus pobladas y bien delineadas cejas, custodiadas por ojazos verdes e imponente lunar en la frente, su belleza conquistó a hombres poderosos, entre ellos un presidente de México en funciones, y renombrados artistas, como Die

      4 min read

    • Article

      ¡su Herencia Está a La Deriva!

      Mar 6, 2023

      Catalogada “salvaje”, por sus pobladas y bien delineadas cejas, custodiadas por ojazos verdes e imponente lunar en la frente, su belleza conquistó a hombres poderosos, entre ellos un presidente de México en funciones, y renombrados artistas, como Die

      4 min read

    • Article

      Carmen Boullosa

      Mar 4, 2021

      Carmen Boullosa (Ciudad de México, 1954), poeta y novelista de larga trayectoria, fue becaria de la Fundación Guggenheim, del Center for Scholars and Writers de la New York Public Library y profesora en diversas universidades estadounidenses, y forma

      3 min read

    • Article

      María Montesinos

      Feb 3, 2020

      María Montesinos es licenciada en Periodismo por la Universidad Complutense de Madrid y ha trabajado tanto en medios como en comunicación social. Su novela Un destino propio se ha visto precedida de una gran expectición. Ambientada a finales del sigl

      1 min read

    • Article

      Novedades Editoriales

      Jun 6, 2021

      Carolina Sanín BLATT & RÍOS, 268 PP., 16,90 € Una oportunidad esta para conocer a la colombiana Carolina Sanín, que nació en Bogotá, en 1973, y que debutó en el género novelístico en el año 2005; ya lleva publicadas tres novelas, la última en el 2020

      47 min read

    • Article

      Novedades Editoriales

      Apr 4, 2022

      Monika Zgustova Galaxia Gutenberg, 208 pp., 18,50 € La gran escritora checa es también catalana y castellana, pues muchas veces esta última lengua es la originaria a la hora de concebir sus novelas, aunque luego tengan tres ediciones en sendos idioma

      67 min read

    • Article

      Bernardine Evaristo

      Apr 4, 2022

      Bernardine Evaristo
      7 min read

    • Article

      Novedades editoriales

      Jun 3, 2020

      Raquel Taranilla Seix Barral, 417 pp., 20,90 € Esta barcelonesa nacida en 1981 y residente en la actualidad en Madrid, donde es profesora de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Información de la Universidad Complutense, ha ganado este año el premio Bibliot

      43 min read

    • Article

      Premio Azórin

      Apr 4, 2022

      Premio Azórin
      2 min read

    • Article

      José Saramago

      Nov 28, 2022

      José Saramago
      7 min read

    • Article

      Plankton Press

      Sep 2, 2022

      Plankton Press
      4 min read

    • Article

      El Último De Su Especie

      May 6, 2022

      El Último De Su Especie
      2 min read

    • Article

      2022 orgullo Editorial

      Jul 4, 2022

      2022 orgullo Editorial
      6 min read

    Reviews for La Casa en Mango Street

    3.5/5

    1,982 ratings112 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Esperanza and her family didn't always live on Mango Street. Right off she says she can't remember all the houses they've lived in but "the house on Mango Street is ours and we don't have to pay rent to anybody, or share the yard with the people downstairs, or be careful not to make too much noise, and there isn't a landlord banging on the ceiling with a broom. But even so, it's not the house we thought we'd get." Esperanza's childhood life in a Spanish-speaking area of Chicago is described in a series of spare, poignant, and powerful vignettes. Each story centers on a detail of her childhood: a greasy cold rice sandwich, a pregnant friend, a mean boy, how the clouds looked one time, something she heard a drunk say, her fear of nuns: "I always cry when nuns yell at me, even if they're not yelling." Esperanza's friends, family, and neighbors wander in and out of her stories; through them all Esperanza sees, learns, loves, and dreams of the house she will someday have, her own house, not on Mango Street.
    • 5/5
      This book was beautiful. I read it in one sitting because I was engrossed in it - I could picture the whole neighborhood and everyone who lived there. The descriptions were vivid, with unique wording. Some of the sentences were so amazing, I felt like I had been punched in the stomach after reading them. My personal favorite: "I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain."
    • 3/5
      Just not my cup of tea. Short stories that wanted to be poetry but didn't quite succeed as either. Also, awfully depressing.
    • 4/5
      Esperanza's family has lived in 3 different places that she can remember before the House on Mango Street. For every time her mother has another child the family needs a larger living space and they move.

      Although, her parents dream of winning the lottery & buying the house of their dreams, they will never realize their dream.

      The book is made up of 46 short stories about life in the House on Mango Street: we meet Esperanza's family, neighbors & neighbors' families/relatives. She describes life in a typical Chicago Latino Barrio/neighborhood.

      The stories are well written and maintain a true to life voice. I am happy to have the opportunity to re-read this book.
    • 5/5
      Cisneros writes this book with a perfect balance between the child who is discovering her world for the first time and the growing woman who can make sense of what she's seeing. In doing so, she invites us into her shoes without judging us for having lived outside of them. Deceptively simple, there is a great deal going on under the surface in these portraits of characters who are at once both intimate and distant. This is a uniquely poetic book.
    • 5/5
      Author presents vignettes of people populating the neighborhood of Esperanza Cordero just when she was coming of age and confused about whether she is a young adult or a child.Lovely, lively and visual descriptions make this small book a keeper. Her writing is poetic with memorable lines you'll want to jot down.
    • 5/5
      Loved it then, love it now.
    • 5/5
      Magical, mystical and wonderful - I could read The House on Mango Street over and over.
    • 5/5
      The House on Mango Street delves into the mind of Esperanza who doesn't like her name or the house she lives in. It shows the inner struggles of a young girl and her neighborhood surroundings. Many people around the world desire more and therefore can relate to the main character.
    • 4/5
      Cisneros's vignette style (at least for this book) may not be for everyone, but I liked The House on Mango Street very much. Her background in poetry shines through here. It's not flowery, however, as the stories show the grittiness of one neighborhood in Chicago and the perspective of what it was like growing up Latina there. An evocative read.
    • 3/5
      The Two-Word Strategy Formal Review:Word 1: HomeWord 2: ProgressionI chose these words because throughout the story Esperanza's journal entries grow in depth. In the beginning her journal entries are rather surface level, talking about shoes and other similar topics, but later in the story her entries describe more explicit scenes of her being forced to kiss and older man and a sexual scene. I also chose the word home because Esperanza is seeking to understand the meaning of home to her throughout the story; whether it is physical or within herself. At the end of the story she leaves her physical home on Mango street but realizes that her memories there will never leave her.
    • 3/5
      A collection of snippets, as author calls it herself: "...just a jar of buttons..." Situations one has while growing up. The atmosphere feels threatening somehow, I expect bad things to happen, especially when men are around.The introduction in this edition is written by the author herself, some 20 years later, and is very important. It is essential, moving and positive, confirming what Virginia Woolf wrote in Room of One's Own: a safe and independent personal space in affirming surrounding is important for the ability to write and to live and everyone should have one. It is a relief to see that women are finally also able to organize their lives in that way, everywhere in the world. This is the only way forward.
    • 4/5
      This is a multicultural book about a young girl and all of her experiences she has had while growing up on mango street.
    • 5/5
      This book was definitely worth the read, I enjoyed it from page one till the end. I especially liked how you could pick up the book from understand exactly what was going on, even though it had a continuous storyline. It was very easy to get yourself immersed into the storyline, and the world of Esperanza. You almost felt like you were living on Mango street, in the house that wasn't a home.
    • 4/5
      The House on Mango Street was a great book if you would like to read a quick, short,and enjoyable book. It is also a very empowering and inspiring novel. I did not enjoy the format of the book as it is made up of multiple very short chapters which are not connected to the others besides the fact that they all are about Esperanza and her life on Mango street. However if you want to just flip to a chapter or read a short story, instead of a long flowing novel, this book would be great. It is also a good read for everyone, especially young people who can connect to the main character Esperanza. The book will also make you rethink things in your own life as you read about Esperanza's.
    • 3/5
      Not sure what to make of this one. I didn't find this book boring, since each chapter stands almost completely alone and is very short, so you don't need a long attention span to read it. It's just a bunch of the narrator's random memories of life as a kid in a Hispanic Chicago neighborhood. The whole thing is very poetic. But I couldn't figure out what the point was to this book. I'm pretty dense when it comes to that kind of thing. I gave it three stars because the author seems to have accomplished her goal (stated in the introduction) of making her writing accessible to everyone. I think I enjoyed the author's introduction more than the text itself.
    • 3/5
      "My mother says when I get older my dusty hair will settle and my blouse will learn to stay clean, but I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain.
      In the movies there is always the one with the red lips who is beautiful and cruel. She is the one who drives the men crazy and laughs them all away. Her power is her own. She will not give it away.
      I have begun my own quiet war. Simple. Sure. I am the one who leaves the table like a man, without putting back my chair or picking up the plate."
    • 4/5
      The House on Mango Street was the last book I read before Birdie was born, so it goes without saying that it was mostly chosen based on the slimness of the spine. Cisneros wrote a series of vignettes that, tied together, make up a coming-of-age story. Her writing is easy to read and the prose is pretty but for some reason the book as a whole didn't grab me as much as I expected. It was a good read but I probably won't reach for it again.


      (three and a half stars) <-- totally pointless note: I'm not sure why I hyphenated the "x and a half" for so long; I'm not going back and correcting them all, though. I KNOW THIS WILL AFFECT YOU PROFOUNDLY.
    • 4/5
      I read this to fulfill an assignment to read a banned or challenged book. I'm not really sure why this was challenged. Chicago in the 1950's is tough for minorities. This short book of vignettes tells of poverty and struggle from the view of a young hispanic girl. It was written by the author using experiences from her own life and the lives of acquaintances.
    • 4/5
      La casa en Mango Street is coming of age short novel that depicts the life experiences of Esperanza, a twelve year old Chicana (Mexican-American) growing up in a poor neighborhood in Chicago. The novel is written in short vignettes that are narrated by Esperanza. This book highlights the everyday experiences and challenges that she faces and tells us all about her aspirations, dreams, and goals. The title of the book has much significance because Esperanza's house on Mango Street is what inspired her to pursue and education and achieve her dream of getting out of that neighborhood and become "someone important".
    • 5/5
      Esperanzo is a Latino girl who lives in Chicago. She is narrator of the novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cineros. Esperanzo tells the story by introducing her neighbors. Each neighbor is unique. It's fun to learn about their personalities. It made me realize that although people live in one area very close together no person is really like the other individual. I discovered that it's the very oddities of our natures which make our existence together like a fun stroll through a foreign market place. There are so many neighbors in the novel doing their own thing. I tried to remember different ones to write about in the book review.I might as well talk about Esperanzo. Esperanzo hates her name. I loved her name immediately. I think Esperanzo will grow up and move away and become a successful lady. She's very intelligent. Not all children would observe their neighbors so well. Cathy is a lady on the block who loves cats. She is the QUEEN of CATS.This is Esperanzo's description of Cathy. "...cats and cats and cats. Baby cats, big cats, skinny cats, sick cats. Cats asleep like little donuts. Cats on top of the refrigerator. Cats taking a walk on the dinner table. Her house is like cat heaven."Just from reading this one description of a neighbor it's easy to tell how well Sandra Cisneros writes about this Latino community in Chicago. I like to think that some of these people in the neighborhood are real people Sandra Cisneros might have known.I also liked the description of Esperanzo's house. It's a red house. One of the sad facts about Esperanzo is her family moves constantly. She is never in one place for long. That means making new friends, going to a new school, etc. "We didn't always live on Mango Street. Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived on Keeler. Before Keeler it was Paulina, and before that I can't remember. But what I remember most is moving a lot...The house on Mango Street...small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you'd think they were holding their breath." Esperanzo has a brother and sisters. She also lives with her mom and dad.Really, there is nothing I didn't like about The House on Mango Street. I would like to visit the little red house. The neighbors? I've met quite a few of them on a block or two in Philadelphia while growing up. I would like to end my book review with one more neighbor's description. Her name is Ruthie. "Ruthie, tall skinny lady with red lipstick and blue babushka, one blue sock and one green because she forgot, is the only grown-up we know who likes to play. She takes her dog Bobo for a walk and laughs all by herself, that Ruthie. She doesn't need anybody to laugh with, she just laughs." sandracisneros
    • 5/5
      This excellent little collection of vignettes shows an artist willing to write something not meant to be anything but what it is. It's not meant to be the greatest book ever and it never would mean to be that, and that's what I like most about it in a way. The vignettes are graceful and know when to tell you things and when not to. Excellent examples of the vignette form.
    • 4/5
      The house on Mango Street is a short novel that seems deceptively easy to read. It strongly evokes Mexican / Puerto-rican Hispanic-American culture. The apparent simplicity of the novel is created by the narrative voice belonging to a young, pretty girl, named Esperanza. She is described as pretty and intelligent, attributes that make no real difference in her social situation, or only call for trouble.The novel describes the way Hispanic women deal with and accept sexual conflict as a part of life. The sexual prowess of men is taken as a fact of life, something the women do not protest or try to understand. Men are men, and women are women.The men in the book appear and disappear, or abandon. The men are daring, tricking women into kissing or rape them when vulnerable (p. 270). Underage marriage and teenage mother ship runs throughout the book.The women role is support, and where possible protect each other. Sally's man beats her, and the women dress her bruises (with lard).The house on Mango Street stands for the reality of Esperanza's life, its dangers but also the familiarity of the cultural setting. Esperanza's dream of another house, are perhaps her longing for greater safety, a different life, although she would find it hard to separate from Hispanic culture.
    • 2/5
      I've a feeling I may take some heat for this review. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a collection of scenes from a year in the life of Esperanza Cordera, a girl entering her teenage years in a tough Chicago neighborhood. A plotless collection of scenes praised throughout the world for its poetic language, The House on Mango Street paints a portrait of one family and the block where they live. Ms. Cisneros does a good job, too. By the end of the book, the reader has met and come to better understand a wide range of people. But I don't see what all the fuss was about.There was a lot of fuss about The House on Mango Street when it first came out in 1984. In no time at all the book was in widespread circulation, used in colleges, high schools, even middle and elementary schools. I found my copy on the high shelf of the book room at school. It's a good book overall. It presents a point of view that was not exactly easy to find in print in 1984. And it's short. It should really be considered a novella at 110 pages, half of them white space. Most of the chapters are less than two pages in length; perfect for literature anthologies. The section called "Bums in the Attic" is in the one my school uses.I think the shortness of the chapters worked against my reading of the book. So many quick sketches in sequence, a brief scene in one, a character outlined in another, made me begin to question why the author hadn't taken the time to flesh out a genuine plot, even a slice of life plot. Frankly, it began to feel a bit self-indulgent by the end. There really should be more there there. As for the poetry of the writing which was often discussed back in 1984, I guess so, but I wasn't all that impressed. I felt like I was reading the memoirs of an intelligent young woman writing about people she loved. It's nice that she took the time to share her family with us, but the book did not rise to the level of classic I was led to expect.Towards the end of the novel some of the women on the block tell Esperanza that she'll always be a part of Mango Street and Mango Street will always be a part of her. I suppose I should read this as a statement about the larger experience of growing up in Chicago's Latino neighborhoods, but even with that in mind I just couldn't buy it. Her family spent just a year on Mango Street. You need to spend more time than that in a place before it becomes a part of you, especially at that age. There just wasn't enough in the book for me to believe that Mango Street could be that meaningful after one year. There will be other streets, other towns, other people. Other books, too. That I felt the author agreed with the women who made this claim just made me suspicious of her. Mango Street? Why is Mango Street so important?Sometimes a street is just a good place to be from.
    • 4/5
      Young Esperanza shares her life as she grew up on Mango Street, sharing stories of her family and neighbors around her in a series short vignettes. There's no straightforward, chronological storyline, rather the novel is formed as a series of snapshots from a child's memories. Some are sweet and funny, others are sad, but an overall portrait of the street can be discovered by the time the story is done. And while there is no coherent overarching storyline, there is the thread of Esperanza's point of view and personal growth that holds the vignette's together. The 25th anniversary edition also has the bonus of an introduction by Cisneros, which tells how she came to write Mango Street and how she managed to eek out a personal space for herself, despite her Hispanic parents and heritage that tends to be protective of its women. The introduction, too, is written in the clean and sparse, and poetic style that offers an easy an enjoyable read.
    • 3/5
      This story is about a young Mexican-American girl who comes of age on Mango Street in Chicago. The narrator chronicles her life living in relative poverty as a Mexican-American teenager and her desires to improve her live and move off of Mango Street. The story is told in vignettes and can be taught as a whole or in parts. The narrative voice uses some unconventional colloquial sentence structures. The narrator is sexual assaulted in the story, but the assault is not directly described. Some mature themes represented.
    • 1/5
      I found the introduction filled with unintended ironies. Cisneros said she wanted to write a book that you could turn to any page and find it accessible. For one thing, she said she was "abandoning quotation marks to streamline the typography and make the page as simple and readable as possible." Really? Personally, as far as I'm concerned, punctuation marks are our friends. Quotation marks in the most economical way signal that we are reading a conversation, and through conventions such as alternating paragraphs tell us this is an exchange between two people. Conventions help readability. Lack of quotation marks tell us we're in literary fiction land of difficult, dense prose beloved of academics--not a readable story the ordinary reader will enjoy. In fact, it has become my policy if an author doesn't use quotation marks to shut the book and back away slowly. Why didn't I do that? Because I read this was a celebrated book about the Hispanic-American experience. Cisneros is fairly close to me in age, like me grew up in a big city (Chicago rather than New York) and like me has a Latino background. (Mexican rather than Puerto Rican). In other words, I thought I might identify, recognize commonalities in our experiences that would give me insight into what is accidental and incidental in my family experience and what comes out of being Hispanic, or at least something that took me back to my childhood with my family.But really, I didn't last long despite my resolutions--I just hated the book's structure and style so much. Cisnero also says in her introduction that when she wrote this she didn't realize she wasn't writing a novel since she hadn't heard of "story cycles." You know what? I still don't think what she wrote was a novel. Not remotely. A novel isn't any work you say it is within two covers. I doubt this is long enough for one. I'd be very surprised if it came to even 30,000 words. That's a novella at best--not a novel. But also a novel represents a certain structure, and I don't think a series of short linked prose poems about a character (Esperanza Cordro) cuts it. Many of the 45 chapters didn't even come to 150 words. (And people think James Patterson is terse!) The prose was rambling, repetitive, and to me, instead of coming across as genuine seemed--oh, the sort of pretentious artificial thing I've seen a thousand times among a certain left-wing literati of all kinds of ethnicities that to me seems the very opposite of "diverse" yet seems to define it among many. Yeah, I totally believe this is often assigned in schools. Maybe that accounts for its bestseller status. I didn't for a moment believe this was the first person voice of a young teen girl coming of age. (That it was written by someone attending an elite poetry workshop as told in the introduction? That I believe.)So yeah, so not something I enjoyed or that matched the hype in the blurbs and back cover.
    • 4/5
      I preface this review with the fact that I am a white male who's almost in my thirties; however, I have been around Hispanic culture my whole life and, without a doubt, Cisneros accurately gives justice to said culture via humor, joy, sadness, hope, honesty, and humility. Even I related to Esperanza; her curiosity was my curiosity, her adventure was my adventure, her longing was my longing, and her growth was my growth. I may not have lived on Mango Street, but I can honestly say I've been There, lived There, was eager to leave There, came back to There, left There, loved There, and will never forget those who are still stuck There.
    • 5/5
      The House On Mango street surrounds a young Chicana girl growing up in a primarily Latin American community. I would definitely recommend this book, especially to teenage girls as Esperanza experiences common coming of age events such as friendships, crushes, and feeling insecure about family status and race. Life is oftentimes hard for Esperanza, and she experiences a few traumatic events. The book promotes writing as an escape, (both physically and emotionally) and is definitely a recommended book.
    • 4/5
      Little books can pack a big punch, and that's certainly the case for pint-sized The House on Mango Street. Easily read in one sitting, this book is a coming-of-age tale about a young girl growing up in a poor Latino neighborhood in Chicago. Esperanza Cordero, whose first name translates to "hope," is the narrator of this book, and through her eyes, you see the joy and sadness of living on Mango Street.Esperanza at a young age sees more than most adults see in their lifetimes. What is endearing about her narrative is the sense of hope she feels about leaving her childhood behind - to move away from Mango Street and do "something" with her life. In the end, though, she realizes that her experiences are part of her, and she'll never, completely, leave it behind. It's how you learn and grow from these circumstances that shape you as a person.How I missed this book before is a mystery, but I am glad I stumbled upon it. It's a great book for all ages, especially young adults, who may find Esperanza's journey inspirational and relevant to their lives.