First Person Fiction: Call Me Maria. This item is unavailable.First Person Fiction: Call Me Maria

A new novel from the award-winning author of AN ISLAND LIKE YOU, winner of the Pura Belpre Award.

Maria is a girl caught between two worlds: Puerto Rico, where she was born, and New York, where she now lives in a basement apartment in the barrio. While her mother remains on the island, Maria lives with her father, the super of their building. As she struggles to lose her island accent, Maria does her best to find her place within the unfamiliar culture of the barrio. Finally, with the Spanglish of the barrio people ringing in her ears, she finds the poet within herself. In lush prose and spare, evocative poetry, Cofer weaves a powerful novel, bursting with life and hope.

Judith Ortiz Cofer is an award-winning author known for her stories about coming-of-age experiences in the barrio and her writings about the cultural conflicts of immigrants. She is the author of many distinguished titles for young adults such as Call Me Maria, The Meaning of Consuelo, and The Line in the Sand. She lives in Georgia where she is the Regents' and Franklin Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Georgia.