Sandra Cisneros - The House on Mango Street

Pros: Simple little book that will capture you by the heartstrings.

Cons: House on Mango Street will catch you off guard.

The Bottom Line: Journal style collection of thoughts on life as a Mexican-American female kid. Unique approach and excellent descriptions.

Review: When The House on Mango Street arrived in my mailbox through half.com, I thought: What the heck is this? It was a skinny little book with 110 pages. It looked like it might be a book for young adults, so I thought I might be a little...

Pros: Beautifully written descriptions that paint vivid pictures

Cons: A short book. Done too soon

The Bottom Line: Sandra Cisneros has written a touching and beautiful book.

Review: In one of the textbooks my students used in Poland, I came across a short passage from a book called The House on Mango Street by an author named Sandra Cisneros. I'd never encountered this book before, nor anything by this author. However, the...

Pros: Vivid, riveting, and (at 110 pages) brisk reading

Cons: Downbeat style might be a turn-off to young readers expecting a neat wrap-up

The Bottom Line: Touching, empathetically written young readers' novel

Review: "A poem should not mean, but be." -- Archibald MacLeish, Ars Poetica Sandra Cisneros' 1984 novel The House on Mango Street is bound to puzzle a lot of students, especially those who remember their literary terms all too well. There's not ...

Pros: One of the top five greatest young adult novels ever conceived.

Cons: If you're looking for in-depth analysis of Chicago's Latino population, look elsewhere.

The Bottom Line: A 110 page masterpiece, written as concisely and exquisitely as possible. Impressive perfection.

Review: It occurs to me that I don't know if this book was originally intended to be considered a young adult novel back in 1984 when it was published. Over the past twenty-plus years since it came out, though, it's certainly been remembered that way. ...

Pros: lyrical and very moving

Cons: wish there were more stories

Review: I recently joined a new women's book group made up of university faculty, staff and students. For the inaugural book, we decided to read The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisnero's novel about growing in a Chicago Latino neighborhood. Taking a...

Pros: Simplistically profound.

Cons: a few short chapters got a little boring

The Bottom Line: This book is very poetic and profound. Easy reading!

Review:
This book was one of the best books I have read in a while.

I read the entire book in one day. Sandra Cisneros crafted this collection of mostly unrelated events beautifully. Every chapter (usually 2-4 pages long) contains either the...

Pros: Wonderful prose that expresses complex ideas about growing up, poverty, and the Latino community

Cons: Need to go slowly to take it all in

Review: The House on Mango Street is another book that popped up on the reading list generated by the (now defunct) BookMatcher at Amazon.com. (I am one of those people that loves lists; I can't seem to help myself). As usual, the BookMatcher was...

Pros: This book reads like poetry in the best sense. It is rich with real life and emotional truths.

Cons: The simplicity of the writing style may fool readers into thinking that the content is simple as well.

Review: Sandra Cisneros's House on Mango Street is an amazing collection of vignettes which take us through the life of a young Latina girl. Cisneros's writing is as rich and elegant as heavy pastry, with a light frosting of mysticism and culturally-bound...

Pros: brilliant

Cons: deceptively simple- don't be fooled!

Review: Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street, was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 20, 1954. She was the only daughter, of seven children, to a Mexican father and mother. She grew up as a poor, Hispanic girl, learning to deal with all the...

Pros: language, quick read, anthologized

Cons: -

The Bottom Line: A good "novel of stories" that tells of a young gril growing up in the Latin American districts of Chicago in a contemporary setting.

Review: Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street is a short "novel of stories" revolving around the world of Esperanza, a young Latino teen in Chicago. The story tells of her growing up in the poorer, ethnic regions of the city and her aspirations toward the...