The House on Mango Street (Sandra Cisneros)

Here it is, pulled out of my shelf at work.

44 short texts. This book could be reduced to that. Some of them are half a page, others are a few pages long, and they are called vignettes - that is short literary scetches. I have read a couple of them as stand alone short stories in textbooks, and they have been good in that capacity. They really shine, however, together with the rest of the book. These are meant to be read together. That way they show us the contours of the young narrator Esperanza's life. They also show us what is going on with people around her, and many themes appear from the depths of the seemingly naïve stories she tells from her vantage point as a young Mexcian girl in Chicago.

This comes higly recommended. For everyone. More about using it in the classroom after the jump.


I learned about this book on a course for English teachers in York, where the professor had been asked to help provide good texts for the ESL classroom. She had many wonderful books, and this is one of my favorites among them. There are two main reasons why this is a favorite: I love the incredible amounts of information given through such short, "simple" texts, and I love how the short texts make it very versatile in the classroom.

For students who are already competent readers, they can enjoy learning about Esperanza's life, and feel the thrill of spotting the underlying themes. For students who struggle a bit, the teacher can help choose which texts to read, and voila, they read the same book! This was suggested to us at the course.

I have lent this book out to students who need a little more of a challenge, or just something fun, to keep them interested in the English subject. I have also copied single vignettes and used them for a single class study topics. For instance the first one, by the same name as the book, is a good one for letting the students illustrate, because there are many different interesting and visual pieces of information. Number 30, "No speak English", is very good to read as a short story (this is one I have seen in textbooks), it suits the topic of ESL well, and it is sad and funny both.

I am seriously considering having the students read the whole thing next year. Time will tell :)