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Pura Belpre Books, Del Sol BooksAuthor : Victor Martinez, Illustrator : Steve Scott, Translator : Amalia Bermejo
5th Grade and up

El loro en el horno
Parrot in the Oven

Del Sol Books, Get The Complete SetEl loro en el horno, Softcover, Spanish, Book, Victor Martinez, Steve Scott, Amalia Bermejo, 5th Grade and up, 9788427932388, $14.50
Parrot in the Oven, Softcover, English, Book, Victor Martinez, Steve Scott,
5th Grade and up, 9780064471862, $5.99

$333.83 for the Story Collection Pura Belpre Spanish Set, Including 20%-Off, Free Shipping, and No Sales Tax : 2 Hardcover Spanish Book, 8 Hardcover Bilingual Book, 19 Softcover Spanish Books, and 12 Softcover Bilingual Books

$448.07 for the Story Collection Pura Belpre English Set, Including 20%-Off, Free Shipping, and No Sales Tax : 24 Hardcover English Books and 18 Softcover English Books

Ray, Del Sol Books


El loro en el horno, Parrot in the Oven, Del Sol BooksPura Belpre Award Winning Book in 1998 for Narrative
1996 Americas Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature
1997 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library)
1996 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature

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 was the trouble 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.  Winner of the 1996 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, Parrot in the Oven: mi vida is a fresh, original, and powerfully written account of one boy's coming-of-age in a difficult time.  For Manuel Hernandez, the year leading up to his test of courage, his initiation into a gang, is a time filled with the pain and tension, awkwardness and excitement of growing up in a mixed-up, crazy world. Manny’s dad is always calling him el perico, or parrot. It’s from a Mexican saying about a parrot that complains how hot it is in the shade while all along he’s sitting inside the oven and doesn’t know it. But Manny wants to be smarter than the parrot in the oven—he wants to find out what it means to be a vato firme, a guy to respect. From an exciting new voice in Chicano literature, this is a beautifully written, vivid portrait of one Mexican-American boy’s life.

It's no wonder that Parrot in the Oven won the 1996 National Book Award for Young People's Fiction. Victor Martinez's lush, evocative prose leaps from the page, grabbing the reader by the throat right from the start. Not only do we witness Manuel Hernandez's coming of age, we feel every juicy moment of it: his ache for something just out of reach, the confusion of seeing his family with new eyes, the tickle and flood of awakening passion. It's difficult to portray transformation from the inside, but Martinez does so with grace and power. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

El loro en el horno, Parrot in the Oven, Del Sol BooksPublishers Weekly : In his debut novel, set in a dusty California town, Martinez employs a series of compelling, frequently troubling vignettes to illuminate a Mexican American boy's coming of age. It's not easy for Manuel Hernandez to discover his place in the world, especially when he is constantly bombarded with the hardships of his poor and woefully dysfunctional family. Their tiny sheetrock house in the projects is the scene of angry arguments-even of threats at rifle point. Manny steps onto a battlefield at every turn, whether he is collecting his alcoholic and violent father from the local pool hall, withstanding the ethnic slurs of white school mates, or seeking initiation into a neighborhood gang. But as the months pass and some of his wounds heal, Manny slowly begins to understand the sense of self that he can derive from his role within this difficult household. The tense prose and often biting dialogue bring into razor-sharp focus the frustration and bitterness of a struggling family; at the same time, Manny's first-person narrative is tinged with compassion and, indeed, love for the unstable people around him. Martinez's honest voice, and descriptions sprinkled with elegant imagery, offer a rare and consummately believable portrait of barrio life. Ages 12-up.

School Library Journal : Grade 8-10-This contemporary novel, lyrically related in a series of vignettes, tells the story of a Mexican-American family's struggle to maintain its integrity in the face of poverty, discrimination, and cultural alienation. Manuel (Manny) Hernandez, second son in a family of four children, introduces readers to his unemployed father and strong but long-suffering mother, who bristles against her husband's ne'er-do-well tendencies while respecting his status as head of the household, as their culture dictates. Strong willed enough to send him to prison when he threatens her with a rifle, she cleans the house and welcomes him home when he is released, much to the frustration of her children. Intense emotions and bursts of violence flare up in this story, tempered by true love and family ties. Manny's sister Magda suffers a miscarriage as well as the recriminations of a Mexican hospital receptionist. Back at home in a moment of unanticipated tenderness, Manny's father gently cares for his daughter. Throughout, the powerful thread of this story is Manny's search for acceptance, laced with the adolescent angst that always accompanies such a quest. He maintains his personal integrity despite social humiliations and skirmishes with the law. Martinez writes with clear insight into the Chicano culture. His narrative is poetic, at times almost delicate, in depicting the joys, sorrows, and traumas of the Hernandez family. This novel will appeal to YAs in general and especially to Mexican-American readers.

Booklist : Gr. 7-10. For Mexican American teen Manuel, the main challenge in life, whether he always realizes it or not, is to find a reason to survive amid the negativity and emptiness that pervade his growing up in a city project. His father, unemployed and often drunk, is a source of tension for the whole family, especially Manuel's mother, whose determination to keep them all together is at times superhuman. The novel, written in a fluid, poetic language, resembles a series of vignettes more than one connected story; and this structure not only leaves the character development of Manuel and his family uneven but also generates a disjointedness that is occasionally confusing. There is also a general lack of basic information, such as the exact setting of the story and the ages of Manuel and his siblings, that may make the characters and their environment difficult for readers to visualize. However, the stories themselves, from Manuel's sister's miscarriage to his initiation into a gang to his grandmother's death, are not easily forgotten, and the book is worth purchasing for its authentic portrayal of a Hispanic teen's experiences. Laura Tillotson --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.


Story Collection Pura Belpre :
Antes de ser libres, Before We Were Free, Del Sol Books
Arrorro mi nino Latino Lullabies and Gentle Games, Del Sol BooksBajo las palmas reales, Under the Royal Palms, Del Sol BooksBarrio Joses Neighborhood, Del Sol BooksBeisbol en Abril, Baseball in April, Del Sol BooksBook Fiesta - Book Day, Del Sol BooksCesar, Del Sol BooksChato y los amigos pachangueros, Chato and the Party Animals, Del Sol BooksChato y su cena, Chatos Kitchen, Del Sol BooksCosechando esperanza, Harvesting Hope, Del Sol BooksCuadros de familia - Family Pictures, Del Sol BooksCuba 15Dear Primo, Del Sol BooksDel ombligo de la luna - From the Bellybutton of the Moon, Del Sol BooksDevolver al Remitente, Return to Sender, Del Sol BooksDiego Bigger than Life, Del Sol BooksDona Flor, Del Sol BooksEl Gallo de Bodas - The Bossy Gallito, Del Sol BooksEn mi familia - In My Family, Del Sol BooksEl loro en el horno, Parrot in the Oven, Del Sol BooksEl Sonador, The Dreamer, Del Sol BooksEsperanza renace, Esperanza Rising, Del Sol BooksFederico Garcia Lorca, Del Sol BooksFiesta Babies, Del Sol BooksFirefly Letters, Del Sol BooksFrida, Del Sol BooksGathering the Sun, Del Sol BooksGiving - Thanks, Del Sol BooksGrandmas Gift, Del Sol BooksIguanas en la nieve - Iguanas in the Snow, Del Sol BooksJuan Bobo busca trabajo, Juan Bobo Goes to Work, Del Sol BooksJust a Minute, Del Sol BooksJust in Case, Del Sol BooksLa flor de oro, The Golden Flower, Del Sol BooksMama and Papa Have a Store, Del Sol BooksLaughing Out Loud I Fly, Del Sol BooksLa vasija que Juan Fabrico, The Pot that Juan Built, Del Sol BooksLa velita de los cuentos - The Storytellers Candle, Del Sol BooksLos Gatos Black on Halloween, Del Sol BooksMartina Una Cucarachita Muy Linda - Martina the Beautiful Cockroach, Del Sol BooksMas alla de mi, Reaching Out, Del Sol BooksMe Frida, Del Sol BooksMi diario de aqui hasta alla - My Diary from Here to There, Del Sol BooksMis colores mi mundo - My Colors My World, Del Sol BooksMy Abuelita, Del Sol BooksMy Name is Celia, Del Sol BooksMy Name is Gabito, Del Sol BooksNinety Miles to Havana, Del Sol BooksOle Flamenco, Del Sol BooksPablo Remembers, Del Sol BooksPapa and Me, Del Sol BooksPrimer dia en las uvas, First Day in Grapes, Del Sol BooksQue puedes hacer con un rebozo - What Can You Do with a Rebozo, Del Sol BooksSenderos Fronterizos, Breaking Through, Del Sol BooksSnapshots from the Wedding, Del Sol BooksSpirits of the High Mesa, Del Sol BooksThe Poet Slave of Cuba, Del Sol BooksThe Surrender Tree, Del Sol BooksThe Tequila Worm, Del Sol BooksTomates risuenos - Laughing Tomatoes, Del Sol BooksUna isla como tu, An Island Like You, Del Sol BooksVentanas magicas - Magic Windows, Del Sol BooksYo Naomi Leon, Becoming Naomi Leon, Del Sol Books


Ray, Del Sol Books