Maria is a girl caught between two worlds: Puerto Rico, where she was born, and New York, where she now lives in a basement apartment in the barrio. While her mother remains on the island, Maria lives with her father, the super of their building. As she struggles to lose her island accent, Maria does her best to find her place within the unfamiliar culture of the barrio. Finally, with the Spanglish of the barrio people ringing in her ears, she finds the poet within herself. In lush prose and spare, evocative poetry, Pura Belpre Award-winner Judith Ortiz Cofer weaves a powerful and emotionally satisfying novel, bursting with life and hope. Book jacket. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Gr 5-8 Through a mixture of poems, letters, and prose, Marķa 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 Sśper. Eventually, she becomes trilingual, speaking English, Spanish, and "Spanglish," and through her words, Marķa 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 Marķa'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 © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr. 6-9. Dreaming of a better education, Puerto Rican teenager Maria reluctantly leaves Mami and moves to a mainland barrio with her father. A talented writer, Maria expresses her dismay in her gritty urban surroundings through poetry, wistfully noting the disappearance of words such as "green, blue, sun, mountains, music, friends" from her vocabulary. Eventually, though, sorrow is tempered by exciting new friendships; compassionate, inspiring teachers; and, most of all, the development of a poetry style all her own, mixing her newly confident English and her father's festive Spanglish. Maria's self-conscious attempts to forge a fluid, nonpartisan identity ("Am I an Island woman or a barrio woman? Can't I be both?") seems overdone, but her resilience as her parents' marriage deteriorates feels poignant and true. Ortiz Cofer, the author of the award-winning An Island Like You (1995), charts Maria's literary coming-of-age through poems, letters, and other narrative fragments, making this both structurally and thematically reminiscent of Sandra Cisneros' watershed The House on Mango Street (1984). JenniferMattson. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Judith Ortiz Cofer was born in Puerto Rico and moved to Paterson, New Jersey, as a child. The New York Times has deemed her "a writer of authentic gifts, with a genuine and important story to tell." Orchard Books published Cofer's book An Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio, which won the Pura Belpre Award and the Americas Award, among many others. Cofer's other books include The Meaning of Consuelo, which was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults; and Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood, which was awarded the 1991 PEN/Martha Albrand Special Citation for Nonfiction and was named a New York Public Library Best Book for the Teen Age. She is the Franklin Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Georgia, and lives in Louisville, and Athens, Georgia, with her family Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Call Me Maria	1
Like the First Flower	3
Letter to Mami	4
Scenes from My Island Past
Part 1 The Beginning of Maria Alegre/Maria Triste	6
Part 2 A Memory of Maria Alegre	10
Part 3 Flowering	13
Where I Am Now: The Tides, the Treasure, and the Trash	15
Here Comes Barrioman	17
Spanglish for You and Maybe for Me	18
Spanish Class, a Lesson in El Amor	19
Letter to Mami	21
Letter to Maria	23
The Papi-lindo, Fifth Floor	25
More Than You Know Sabes?	28
The King of the Barrio	29
El Super-Hombre	31
Letter to Maria	33
What My Father Likes to Eat	34
Picture of Whoopee	38
Dona Segura, Costurera, Third Floor	42
Bombay, San Juan, and Katmandu	43
Golden English: Lessons One and Two and Two-and-a-Half	46
An American Dream	49
The Power of the Papi-lindo	52
Exciting English: I Am a Poet! She Exclaimed	60
Letter to Mami, Not Sent	61
American Beauty	63
Crime in the Barrio	66
Love in America	70
Life Sciences: The Poem As Seen Under the Microscope	75
English Declaration: I Am the Subject of a Sentence	79
After School, I Hear Whoopee	81
"Silent Night" in Spanish and Two Glamour Shots of My Island Grandmother	83
Math Class: Sharing the Pie	85
Abuela's Winter Visit	91
La Abuela's Island Lament: A One-Act Play	92
Who Are You Today, Maria?	95
Translating Abuela: I Know Who I Am	99
Translating Abuela's Journal: The Ice Age	100
Translating Abuela's Journal: After I Take Her to the Museum and the Theater	101
Translating Abuela's Journal: The Final Entry	103
English: I Am the Simple Subject	104
My Papi-Azul and Me, the Brown Iguana	106
Rent Party	107
There Go the Barrio Women	108
My Mother, The Rain. El Fin	109
My Father Changing Colors	120
Papi-Azul Sings "Asi son las mujeres"	121
Seeing Red: Asi son los hombres	123
Confessions of a Non-Native Speaker	125

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