Parrot in the Oven

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. 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.

Resources

Reading Guide

Product Details

ISBN: 9780064471862
ISBN 10: 0064471861
Imprint: HarperCollins Espanol
On Sale: 12/28/2004
Pages: 240
List Price:13.50 CAD
BISAC1 : YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Social Themes / General (see also headings under Family)
BISAC2 : YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Social Themes / Peer Pressure
BISAC3 : YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Classics
BISAC4 : YOUNG ADULT FICTION / People & Places / United States / Hispanic & Latino

Victor Martinez

Biography

Victor Martinez was born and raised in Fresno, California, the fourth in a family of twelve children. He attended California State University at Fresno and Stanford University, and has worked as a field laborer, welder, truck driver, firefighter, teacher, and office clerk. His poems, short stories, and essays have appeared in journals and anthologies. Mr. Martinez was awarded the 1996 National Book Award for Young People's Literature for Parrot in the Oven, his first novel. He now makes his home in San Francisco, California.