In a collage of prose pieces, letters home to Mami, and free-verse poetry, fifteen-year-old María shares her first year in the barrio world of New York away from her island world of Puerto Rico. Sometimes she is María Alegre (happy María); sometimes she is María Triste (sad María); sometimes she misses the tropical warmth and light of the island she has left behind; sometimes she welcomes the energy and excitement of her new life; sometimes she speaks in English, sometimes in Spanish, and sometimes in her new third language—Spanglish. Cofer sensitively captures the experience of being caught between two worlds, dislocated and disoriented, and yet enriched by being able to draw on the resources of both old and new—especially for budding poet María, every new word learned in all her languages that she can add to her treasury of poetic materials. The novel is less of a plot-driven story than a kaleidoscope of moments captured throughout María's year: a friend's disenchantment with first love; a kindly teacher's encouragement of her poetic gifts; a visit from her grandmother, who leaves behind wonderfully funny comments on her visit to the Guggenheim and a performance of Cats: "I will never shed a tear for a cat, no matter how tragic their lives may be." A delicately wrought tribute to multi-lingualism and multi-culturalism. 2004, Orchard Books, Ages 12 up.
—Claudia Mills
Fifteen-year-old Maria is a Puerto Rican girl living in the New York barrio. She speaks Spanish, English, and is learning Spanglish. Some days she is Maria Alegre, but other days she is Maria Triste living out the battle between her island Puerto Rican mother and her mainland Puerto Rican father. Her mother loves the island with its beaches and sunshine; her father loves his hometown New York-its street life, its pavement, its promise. When he leaves Puerto Rico to return to New York, Maria chooses to go with him, to look after him and to have an American education. It is a decision with sacrifice but she sticks to it. Using a pastiche of poems, letters, and pensamientos, Maria shares her memories, her feelings and her poetically expressed impressions of the world around her. She deftly depicts the characters populating her universe-the people in her building and on the street, her teachers, her family, her free-spirited girlfriend Whoopee Dominquez, her impressionable neighbor Uma, and the fifth-floor Papi-lindo, the Latin lover-in -raining who devastates girls with his charm. This short book is full of lyrical writing, memorable portraits, deep sentiment, and acute observations about being a daughter, a teenager, an immigrant, an outsider, a seeker of beauty, a user of language, and the creator of your own identity. VOYA CODES: 4Q 3P J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Will appeal with pushing; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2004, Orchard, 127p., Ages 12 to 18.
—Tina Frolund
With Call Me Maria, Judith Ortiz Cofer delivers a poignant story of a sixteen-year-old Puerto Rican girl trying to find her place in the barrio of New York. Maria has gone with her father as he returns to the place of his childhood leaving her mother behind for a temporary time. Maria's father is a superintendent and a jack-of-all- trades as he takes care of the needs of the tenants in the building. Maria accepts the responsibility of making their basement apartment into a home--a home where she sits from her desk doing schoolwork and looking up at the feet that walk down the sidewalk. Maria befriends Whoopie, who teaches her the way of the barrio and how to master Spanglish. When her mother does come to New York a year later, Maria realizes it is only for a visit and not to live. Though both parents want her, Maria decides to stay with her father because she has come to accept the life of the barrio. Maria's voice is a strength in this uniquely written novel as Cofer comfortably transitions between prose, letters, and poetry. 2004, Orchard Books, 127 pp., Ages young adult.
—Roger Caswell
Gr 5-8-Through a mixture of poems, letters, and prose, Mar'a gradually reveals herself as a true student of language and life. Her family has decided that she and her father will leave her mother in Puerto Rico and make a home for themselves in a New York City barrio. The vibrancy of her life is reflected in her growing friendships with Whoopee and Uma, two girls in her building, where her father is el Super. Eventually, she becomes trilingual, speaking English, Spanish, and "Spanglish," and through her words, Mar'a creates a rich portrait of a neighborhood that nurtures its own. A slight plot is woven in regarding the conflict over island versus city life, and which girl the handsome papi-lindo on the fifth floor will choose to flirt with. In both cases, there is beauty to experience on the surface, but one must look deeper to find true value. Understated but with a brilliant combination of all the right words to convey events, Cofer aptly relates the complexities of Mar'a's two homes, her parents' lives, and the difficulty of her choice between them. Particularly good for immigrants and second-generation readers, this is a quietly appealing portrayal of a Latina hija that many libraries will find valuable.-Carol A. Edwards, Douglas County Libraries, Castle Rock, CO Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
This affecting mix of poetry and prose follows the life of a 13-year-old Puerto Rican girl who leaves her island and mother to live with her father in New York City. Maria loves Puerto Rico and has a close relationship with her mother, but wants to go to a good American college. While she misses all she's left, she's fascinated by the barrio, her father's home, by its personalities and its own language, "Spanglish." Alternating between joy and sadness, she faces a final decision when her mother visits, and announces that she's divorcing Maria's father. Cofer follows up her wonderful An Island Like You (1996) with another lilting and ultimately uplifting examination and celebration of the life of Hispanic immigrants in America. It's a lovely work that should appeal not only to young Hispanic readers, but also to the general reader. (Fiction. 12+)
