Customer Reviews

An Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a collection of short stories about situations Puerto-Rican American teenagers face. The setting is a New Jersey barrio, and the characters are all richly believable and intriguing. My favorite story is the first one: Rita is sent to live with her grandparents in Puerto Rico because she lied to her parents and was caught with a boy where she shouldn't have been. The way her grandparents treat her, and the good natured way Rita protests is quite realistic. She ends up being glad she was sent to her grandparents, and she seems to have gained an appreciation for her roots. In another story, Arturo must spend an hour with his abuelo at the nursing home. At first, he's not so excited, but when the hour is up, he realizes there's a lot more about his grandfather he would like to know.The other stories are equally engaging, though not always as light-hearted and humorous. One of the stories deals with Doris and her friend Rick, who is gay. Everyone in the neighborhood rejects Rick and anything he is involved with. It's a touching and sad piece that really strikes home the importance of tolerance.

A very well written collection showing teenagers who find themselves stuck in between their two diverse cultures. The twelve short stories really make you feel like you are living in the Barrio, a small area in New Jersey, with all of the characters. Though each story different, all are intertwined with a main message of showing what young people go through in a society like this. Characters come back in and out of different stories, varying from major to minor roles. The several short stories keep the reader interested, wanting to know about the next real-life situation that will come up in the next story. Each is from a different person in the Barrio's perspective, which allows the reader to see what each person goes through at one time or another. Each character is as believable as the next, and teenagers all over can relate to the realistic situations they all go through. One of my favorites of the stories is the very first one, called "Bad Influence." A girl named Rita is sent to live with her grandparents in Puerto Rico for the summer as punishment. But instead Rita has one of the greatest summers of her life. The collection is well written all around and very intriguing, especially to teen readers. I highly recommend this book to anyone.

BRONX, NY

We're students who attend Middle School 118. The book we read in our Book Club is called An Island Like You. We would recommend this book to someone who likes to read about teenagers' lives in the barrio. We would rate this book a 4. Our favorite part is when Yolanda sneeks inside the fashion show when she is not even supposed to be there. Also, when it talks about Yolanda not liking her mom's boyfriend, Don Jose, we were extra interested. As a group, we think teenagers would fall in love with this book. READ IT!!! It's a great book!!!

I found the story of this 'gang' of boys to be interesting and well-written. The characters were very real, and so were the situations. A must-read for young adults, and those interested in multi-cultural young adult literature.

This book in my opinion was very good. I loved all the short stories, but the only thing that I did not like in this book is how some of the stories were written. The first-person written stories were good and there was nothing I could complain about, but the third-person written stories were horrible! It reminded me of the way I wrote in third grade and some were even repetative. However, the stories were great and it had a very strong and interesting ending.

Life in a Puerto Rican barrio has its ups and downs. The community is close-knit, but the money is scarce.

With bad influences in the forms of peers, pressure from boyfriends, and the loss of friends, things can get difficult. Each teen has their own way of dealing with things - and this is a book of their stories.

An eye-opening collection of short stories that doesn't put rose-colored glasses on the reality of at-risk teenagers. The stories are believable and touching, the teens in the book are easy to relate to, and the author does a great job of painting the small-town barrio.

Readers who like realistic fiction and books with stories told by teens will enjoy reading this book.

Reviewed by: Kira M

A solidly mediocre collection of sentimental stories about teens growing up in a Puerto Rican neighborhood.

I kept wanting the short stories to add up to something big and meaningful, especially after I figured out that she was reusing characters between the short stories. They never did.

Using one or two of the short stories in a classroom or as part of a program might be done to good effect. The whole book, however, was a bit much to take.

This is a wonderful collection of stories about Puerto Ricans living together in a barrio in New Jersey. I found them to be truely entertaining and realistic. It's a good read!

After I read "Silent Dancing," I was convinced that Cofer was a brilliant writer. I decided to check out some other works of her, and thought I would give An Island Like You a try. Maybe it's because the stories are directed at pre-teens, but I thought this was horrible. The first story is about a decadent, immature, and inconsiderate girlie-girl who goes to Puerto Rico to visit her grandparents after her parents catch her with some ruffian boy in the brink of messing around. Not only are the characters fake to the extremes, but every single one has to fit some disgusting archetype, wether it is the Typical Brainless Teenage Girl with Hormonal Imbalance, or The Latino Grandmother. Most of the characters do not appreciate their culture at all, or are even ashamed of it, which greatly insulted me. The stories don't seem to have a moral, and the main characters know nothing about themselves. I don't know why Judith Ortiz Cofer wrote this trash, but I hope she never does it again. I recommend "Silent Dancing," however.

Before I read this book, I had no knowledge what-so-ever on Puerto Rican culture; but if I based my opinions on what the author talks about in this book I would come to the conclusion that all Puerto Rican kids are either disrespectful little punks or absolutley weird nerds, which is, of course, BS. I know Cofer is an excellent author, but this books just wasn't her pot of tea! It's stupid and degrading.