CALL ME MARIA

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+)