Parrot in the Oven
Mi Vida
HarperCollins · Print & ebook · December 28, 2004
Dad believed people were like money.
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- Who it’s for
- A teenager weighs the pull of respect against the right to choose his own path.
- Themes
- Self-determination, Family hardship, Gang pressure
- Genres
- Hispanic & Latino YA, Coming of Age, Social Themes for Teens
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Start with this bookAbout this book
Dad believed people were like money. You could be a thousand-dollar person or a hundred-dollar person -- even a ten-, five-, or one-dollar person. Below that, everybody was just nickels and dimes. To my dad, we were pennies. Fourteen-year-old Manny Hernandez wants to be more than just a penny. He wants to be a vato firme, the kind of guy people respect.
Continue reading
But that′s not easy when your father is abusive, your brother can′t hold a job, and your mother scrubs the house as if she can wash her troubles away. In Manny′s neighborhood, the way to get respect is to be in a gang. But Manny′s not sure that joining a gang is the solution. Because, after all, it′s his life -- and he wants to be the one to decide what happens to it.
Respect on His Terms
A teenager weighs the pull of respect against the right to choose his own path.
Come here for
- A sharp look at how family pressures shape a young person’s choices
- Questions of respect, belonging, and self-determination
Expect
- A grounded coming-of-age story centered on Manny’s perspective
- Tough family tensions alongside a consequential choice
Where it sits
| Coming of Age | 95% |
|---|---|
| Hispanic & Latino YA | 75% |
| Social Themes for Teens | 37% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- YA Classics
- Coming of Age
- US Historical YA
- Hispanic & Latino YA
Show all 8 publisher categories
- Contemporary YA Romance
- Historical YA Romance
- Social Themes for Teens
- Bullying for Teens
- Authors
- Victor Martinez
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- December 28, 2004
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Self-determination · Family hardship · Gang pressure
- Reading lane
- YA Classics