Claudia Mills, Ph.D. (Children's Literature)
In a collage of prose pieces, letters home to Mami, and free-verse poetry, fifteen-year-old María shares her first year in the barrio world of New York away from her island world of Puerto Rico. Sometimes she is María Alegre (happy María); sometimes she is María Triste (sad María); sometimes she misses the tropical warmth and light of the island she has left behind; sometimes she welcomes the energy and excitement of her new life; sometimes she speaks in English, sometimes in Spanish, and sometimes in her new third language--Spanglish. Cofer sensitively captures the experience of being caught between two worlds, dislocated and disoriented, and yet enriched by being able to draw on the resources of both old and new--especially for budding poet María, every new word learned in all her languages that she can add to her treasury of poetic materials. The novel is less of a plot-driven story than a kaleidoscope of moments captured throughout María's year: a friend's disenchantment with first love; a kindly teacher's encouragement of her poetic gifts; a visit from her grandmother, who leaves behind wonderfully funny comments on her visit to the Guggenheim and a performance of Cats: "I will never shed a tear for a cat, no matter how tragic their lives may be." A delicately wrought tribute to multi-lingualism and multi-culturalism. 2004, Orchard Books, $16.95. Ages 12 up.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2004 (Vol. 72, No. 20))
This affecting mix of poetry and prose follows the life of a 13-year-old Puerto Rican girl who leaves her island and mother to live with her father in New York City. Maria loves Puerto Rico and has a close relationship with her mother, but wants to go to a good American college. While she misses all she's left, she's fascinated by the barrio, her father's home, by its personalities and its own language, "Spanglish." Alternating between joy and sadness, she faces a final decision when her mother visits, and announces that she's divorcing Maria's father. Cofer follows up her wonderful An Island Like You (1996) with another lilting and ultimately uplifting examination and celebration of the life of Hispanic immigrants in America. It's a lovely work that should appeal not only to young Hispanic readers, but also to the general reader. 2004, Orchard, 144p, $16.95. Category: Fiction. Ages 12 up. © 2004 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Jaime Jeanne Meadows (Library Media Connection, March 2005)
This novel is presented in poems, letters, and prose to tell the story of a young woman who has moved from Puerto Rico with her father to live in a New York barrio. Her mother has remained in Puerto Rico where she teaches English. Maria is stunned by the changes in her life. She misses her mother, the place where she was born and raised, and her family. By the end of the first page, I was engaged in the writing. The author used descriptions that will put readers on the stairwell, in the sweltering heat, and living with the noise and confusion of a New York City barrio. A particularly poignant chapter is when a merchant wrongly accuses Maria of stealing and makes her empty her purse and pockets. Readers will feel the humiliation and quiet anger that Maria suffered. This book is an excellent representation of the Latino immigrant experience, the difficulties of adapting to a new culture and learning a new language, and finding a new way of life. Highly Recommended. 2004, Orchard Books (Scholastic, Inc.), 127pp., $16.95 hc. Ages 11 up.

Roger Caswell (The ALAN Review, Winter 2005 (Vol. 32, No. 2))
With Call Me María, Judith Ortiz Cofer delivers a poignant story of a sixteen-year-old Puerto Rican girl trying to find her place in the barrio of New York. Maria has gone with her father as he returns to the place of his childhood leaving her mother behind for a temporary time. Maria’s father is a superintendent and a jack-of-all- trades as he takes care of the needs of the tenants in the building. Maria accepts the responsibility of making their basement apartment into a home--a home where she sits from her desk doing schoolwork and looking up at the feet that walk down the sidewalk. Maria befriends Whoopie, who teaches her the way of the barrio and how to master Spanglish. When her mother does come to New York a year later, Maria realizes it is only for a visit and not to live. Though both parents want her, Maria decides to stay with her father because she has come to accept the life of the barrio. Maria’s voice is a strength in this uniquely written novel as Cofer comfortably transitions between prose, letters, and poetry. Category: Coming of Age/Survival/Acceptance. YA--Young Adult. 2004, Orchard Books, 127 pp., $16.95. Ages young adult.Manhattan, KS

Timnah Card (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, November 2004 (Vol. 58, No. 3))
Letters home (and a few back), free-verse poems, and "Instant Histories" of friends and passersby record fifteen-year-old María's struggle with her identity as a Puerto Rican immigrant on the mainland, caught in limbo between her Island heritage and her new home in an urban barrio (and between her mother, who stays in Puerto Rico, and her father, a diehard Puerto Rican mainlander). The allure and possibilities of language have always appealed to her, and now language becomes a way to create her own identity and find a way to embrace all her heritages as she becomes a trilingual poet (fluent in Spanish, English, and barrio Spanglish), ready to make her place in a rich multicultural world. María's characterizations of herself and others are consistently eloquent yet believably tremulous in their emergent power, and her various texts reflect her growth as a writer, their erratic power finally coalescing toward the end to produce some startlingly thoughtful, image-rich pieces: "My treasure room is full./ My second language/ is a silver cup/ from which I intend to drink/ the best wine./ Each word I make mine/ is a pearl, a diamond,/ a ruby, I will someday string/ into a necklace/ and wear everywhere,/ as if I had been born/ rich in English." The mix of brief pieces in different formats gives this work the enticing air of literary collage, so even timid readers will find in María's self-portrait a quiet power, making this offering a strong addition to the Latino/a collection as well as an eloquent story of identity and coming of age. (Reviewed from galleys) Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2004, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2004, Orchard, 144p, $16.95. Grades 7-10.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2005)
When Papi moves back to the New York barrio, while Mami stays home in Puerto Rico, María must "decide between parents, languages, climates, futures." In prose, poems, and letters, María tells of her adjustment to life in the barrio. A poet, she weaves English, Spanish, and Spanglish together in verse and prose that is authentically adolescent. Category: Older Fiction. 2004, Scholastic/Orchard, 129pp, 16.95. Ages 12 to 14. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

Tina Frolund (VOYA, February 2005 (Vol. 27, No. 6))
Fifteen-year-old Maria is a Puerto Rican girl living in the New York barrio. She speaks Spanish, English, and is learning Spanglish. Some days she is Maria Alegre, but other days she is Maria Triste living out the battle between her island Puerto Rican mother and her mainland Puerto Rican father. Her mother loves the island with its beaches and sunshine; her father loves his hometown New York-its street life, its pavement, its promise. When he leaves Puerto Rico to return to New York, Maria chooses to go with him, to look after him and to have an American education. It is a decision with sacrifice but she sticks to it. Using a pastiche of poems, letters, and pensamientos, Maria shares her memories, her feelings and her poetically expressed impressions of the world around her. She deftly depicts the characters populating her universe-the people in her building and on the street, her teachers, her family, her free-spirited girlfriend Whoopee Dominquez, her impressionable neighbor Uma, and the fifth-floor Papi-lindo, the Latin lover-in -raining who devastates girls with his charm. This short book is full of lyrical writing, memorable portraits, deep sentiment, and acute observations about being a daughter, a teenager, an immigrant, an outsider, a seeker of beauty, a user of language, and the creator of your own identity. VOYA CODES: 4Q 3P J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Will appeal with pushing; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2004, Orchard, 127p., $16.98. Ages 12 to 18.