Recently, I read a book called House on Mango Street, which is the story of a girl named Esperanza, which translates to “Hope” in English, as she navigates her process of coming of age. This book was definitely an interesting read, as it is formatted and told in a style that not many books utilize.
To understand the novel and its purpose, it is recommended that one reads the author’s foreword, as it explains the author’s story, how her background led to this book’s creation, and how Esperanza is loosely based upon Cisneros herself, as both of them like writing. This novel starts off with the author introducing the environment that Esperanza grows up around, her house, and the school she goes to. The author deliberately makes Esperanza an unreliable narrator at the start, realistically depicting a younger child’s naive view of the world. Cisneros shows this through the fact that she didn’t know a car she was riding was stolen by one of her cousins earlier in the book, and is expressed later in the book when she doesn’t understand that some boys were joking with her friend, causing her to react unexpectedly.
The novel is written into short little segments, which the author calls “vignettes”, instead of being split into specific chapters like a traditional novel. This gives the novel a more personal feel and really frames the story, as well as giving the readers more details of the impoverished neighborhood in which Esperanza eventually comes of age. The author also blends her cultural background into her writing with this story, and it is reflected in the character of Esperanza, whose parents are quite similar to Cisnero’s parents in a way.
Overall, this book is a great read for those who are interested in reading novels in which the protagonist grows and matures as a person, and the author definitely makes this process interesting through plenty of storytelling and nuanced descriptions of this book’s setting, giving the reader a more personal look at the lives of the characters within this book.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.
Mission Viejo Library Teen Voice 
We read this book in my English class this year and I’m not gonna lie it was hard to wrap my head around at first. I’ve never been a huge fan of poetry and I was a little confused on how the story was structured but ultimately after finishing the book, I’m glad I read it. The way Sandra Cisneros writes is something so fluid and human. She shows what it’s like to see your childhood through adult eyes, everything is a flashbulb of your most impactful memories, the smells, sounds, and sights you vaguely remember. The memories don’t quite connect as smoothly as other stories do but each one is tangible and important to see what shaped Esperanza into who she is and what drew her back to the place she was always trying to escape.