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The House on Mango Street

The House on Mango Street is one of the most cherished novels of the last fifty years. Readers from all walks of life have fallen for the voice of Esperanza Cordero, growing up in Chicago and inventing for herself who and what she will become. “In English my name means hope,” she says. “In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting.”

Told in a series of vignettes—sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes joyous—Cisneros’s masterpiece is a classic story of childhood and self-discovery and one of the greatest neighborhood novels of all time. Like Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street or Toni Morrison’s Sula, it makes a world through people and their voices, and it does so in language that is poetic and direct. This gorgeous coming-of-age novel is a celebration of the power of telling one’s story and of being proud of where you’re from.

More Non-Juvenile Books

  • The Women tells the story of Frances “Frankie” McGrath, a twenty-year-old nursing student who joins the Army Nurse Corps during the Vietnam War. As she navigates the chaos and destruction of war, Frankie discovers her own strength and idealism, ultimately facing the challenges of returning to a divided America. This novel illuminates the sacrifices of women in service and their enduring impact on history.

    Read More about "The Women"...

  • This National Book Award–winning story, a tour de force of historical reportage and narrative nonfiction, rescues an iconic chapter of American history—the Dust Bowl that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression—from the shadows.