The house on Mango Street

Additional The house on Mango Street Information

"It's not always that a luscious writer can be a luscious reader of her own work. This must be the voice she hears in her head when she writes her magical prose."
-Julia Alvarez, author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

Listen as Sandra Cisneros brings to life The House on Mango Street, her greatly admired novel of a young girl growing up in the Latino section of Chicago. Acclaimed by critics, beloved by children, their parents and grandparents, taught everywhere from inner-city grade schools to universities across the country, and translated all over the world, it has entered the canon of coming-of-age classics.

The House on Mango Street tells the story of Esperanza Cordero, whose neighborhood is one of harsh realities and hard beauty. Esperanza doesn't want to belong - not to her rundown neighborhood, and not to the low expectations the world has for her. Esperanza's story is that of a young girl coming into her power, and inventing for herself what she will become.

This timeless classic is now available, for the first time, unabridged. And what makes this a particularly special audio production is the fact that the author, Sandra Cisneros, reads.

What Customers Say About The house on Mango Street:

Even if you don't have to, this is a book you may want to read just to say you did. I liked the way it was written a lot. You may walk away feeling a little more cultured and open minded. I bought this book to read for school. It's a quick read and I enjoyed it much more than your average school reading.

There are other, and in my opinion better, books on growing up poor in America. Poverty is not unique to the Latin culture in America. One that comes to mine is "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." Yes, that takes place at a earlier time period in American history, but the same sentiments about shame are there with fully developed characters and story. I really expected this book to shed light on what it could be light to grow up Latin in America. While there are a few (very few) glimpses into Esperanza's feelings on growing up Latin or "brown" and how that was an "otherness" for her, however, I felt that the book mainly was about the shame of growing up in poverty.

I found this novel to be extremely lively and full of unique spirit, narrated with a voice that uses simple, yet imaginative language. Inside the mind of a child, we see a different perspective on cumulus clouds, love, jump roping, sisterhood, friendship, and growing up. Various vignettes describing elderly neighbors, playmates, and family members shape the life of a young girl searching and striving to become something more than the Mexican girl who lives at 4006 Mango. Cisneros invites us in and charms us with a girly insight. Living on Mango Street sounds as if it would be sunny, colorful, and beautifully exotic.

Many people choose to be ignorant of what may be ten blocks behind their picket fences and mowed lawns. In a country where living expectations are high and competitive, poverty is something that is swept under the rug, hidden from the rest of the world. The poetic prose is an open, free mess of thoughts and dialogue. To read about a girl who is ashamed of where she lives is humbling and eye opening. To sense life in a rundown neighborhood through the eyes of a child is humorous, bubbly, and sometimes tragic and heartbreaking. It's a fact that many people struggle to find a place among a white-collar world. Although just over 100 pages, it is full of memories from a little girl. This novel can be described as a cultural and playful insight to reality.

For Esperanza Cordero in Cisneros' novel, her small, worn house and shabby neighborhood is nothing like a dream. Everything that Esperanza narrates about is creative and a pleasure to read. Just to taste a small part of the world, a part that we may be hesitant to try at first, might just be sweet as mangoes. The charisma that Cisneros' novel emits proves to be unlike anything I have ever read. Esperanza's memories of wearing high heels, developing hips, dancing, and dreaming of a beautiful hillside house add comical personality to counteract the poverty, abuse, and struggles of an immigrant.

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. Sure, it may have meaning and all that, but it does NOT appeal to teens. The only reason i bought this and read it was for my English class. It is full of random short stories that are just really confusing and BORING to read.

I would recommend this book to a mature reader who can handle topics of a sexual nature. Esperanza starts as sharing her own stories in the book, but towards the middle and end of the book the viewpoint switches to Esperanza's encounters with others; the reader can tell that the main character has matured as other people are talked about more often than the main character herself. The book was a casual, easier level book to read. The plot of the story is also very interesting as the reader sees the main character develop from an immature child who is small-minded and closed off to the opposite sex, to a teenager who is curious and sees the larger picture of life. The ending of the story ties the book together and the reader knows that the main character will be well off in life with Esperanza's final life outlook that shown. Although the wording in the book was not difficult, there were many mature topics discussed throughout the reading that are not necessarily appropriate for every reader. The story takes place in a crowded Latino neighborhood in Chicago; the story of Esperanza is very realistic and the conflicts depicted are conflicts that many young pre-teen girls experience.