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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... Read Full Overview

Lucky, age ten, can't wait another day. The meanness gland in her heart and the crevices full of questions in her brain make running away from Hard Pan, California (population 43), the rock-bottom only choice she has.It's all Brigitte's fault -- for wanting to go back to France... Read Full Overview

For Manuel Hernandez, the year leading up to his test of courage, his initiation into a gang, is a time filled with the pain and tension, awkwardness and excitement of growing up in a mixed-up, crazy world. Manny wants to find out what it means to be a vato firme, a guy to respect,... Read Full Overview

Este relato conmovedor tiene un toque autobiogr?fico. Con ?l, su autor retoma la tem?tica social que muy frecuentemente se convierte en tragedia para las personas que habitan el territorio fronterizo entre M?xico y los Estados Unidos. La vida en familia se vuelve dif?cil para... Read Full Overview

Manny Hernandez's life at home is very difficult, and his friends at school believe gangs are the best teachers. But is this really the education Manny wants?

Winner of the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, "Parrot in the Oven, " tells the story of a Mexican-American boy's coming of age in the face of poverty, abuse, and cultural discrimination. "A rare and consummately believable portrait of barrio life."--"Publisher's... Read Full Overview

Titulo original: Parrot in the oven: mi vida.