Sisters / Hermanas

By Gary Paulsen

Book Overview

Told in both English and Spanish, Sisters/Hermanas tells of Rosa, a fourteen-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico City, and Traci, a fourteen-year-old from the suburbs of Houston. "Paulsen has done a masterful job of creating two well-developed, believable characters trapped in environments where the elements of beauty, youth, and popularity have the highest value, and are deemed essential to survival. This is an absorbing tale that rings all too true with real-life pressures and stressful situations that present no easy choices."--VOYA

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0152753230
• ISBN13: 9780152753238
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Gulliver Books
• Length: 65 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.3" x 0.8" x 4.5"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Casi perfecto...si hablas/lees los dos idiomas...

The key to the set-up of the dual language edition, for me, was reading it, juxtapositioned, in the two languages. The translator uses quite a few slang words in Spanish and catches the nuances of the story in the language beautifully. I probably would have been very dissapointed if I could only read one side of the story (one language or the other, but not both). It is the juxtaposition, the contrasting of the stories in BOTH languages that brings out the nuances of beauty. It's like this story was MEANT to be set this way. If you can't read it in both langauges (and it is really easy to read in Spanish, due to Paulsen's style and the translator's keeping to it), you probably won't like it as much as I did. Lo clave, para mi, fue que yo podía leer la novela en los dos idiomas. Es la yuxtaposición de los dos cuentos, los detalles del idioma contado por dos jovenes que sea lo importante. El cuento tenía que estar traducido así. Si puedes leerla en los dos idiomas, creo que te va a ver lo que veía yo: una obra maestra.

Sisters / Hermanas

This book are a educational and real. This book talk about the younger's dream, because they don't have school or can't go to school because they don't are resident or citizen, and need to work for send money to their family. Some of this people came to U.S.A. because they don't have support on the family,and they don't have money for education, food, rent, dresses they have only one way is work on fiels but some of the supervisors dont't like work with young people, in to much job's are the same problem. The government don't have programs for this people they only work on the prostitution, because on this kind of job want to young people don't matter boy's or girl's. I know some times the mother's work very hard for their kida can study,it's fine but a don't like when the mother are very stronger, because kids can't play, see television or due any other activity, and they grew up very fast.

beauty obsession

This book is great! I liked the short excerpts from each girl's day. Having the excerpts short and switching from one girl to the other made clear the similarities. I liked the theme of the destructiveness of obsession with beauty and youth. The obsession is so prevalent in our culture and in this book you can see the horrible damage it can do to young women. It is great this is a bilingual book. I would have been most impressed if Gary Paulsen had actually written it in both languages, alas, he did not. But he had a wonderful idea though. My only problem was with Traci recognizing herself in Rosa. Realistically, I do not think that would have happened. Although Traci going along with her mother would have.

A pair of wonderful sisters

Sisters was a wonderful story.The setting was a city in Mexico around the 1980's where Betty and Carmelita were born.The main characters are the Paulsens ,Betty, and Carmelita. The Paulsens were a great great family but after years past they told Betty and Carmelita that they were their step parents. The part that I like is when their step parents told them that the they're not the girls real parents and told the girls the true story about their parents' death.I recommend this book to people 13-15 years old because it's a good book about life. Also, I recommend this book because it's a very interesting book to read because it was sad and funny too.