The House On Mango Street Review

"You must keep writing.  It will keep you free,"
                  -The House on Mango Street, pg 61

I enjoyed this novel.  It was a fairly quick and easy read, almost like a collection of mini short stories.  The voice of the speaker in all of these stories was very unlike anything else I've read.  To me, it was an equal mix of young girl and someone who's first language is not English.  I think the use of the voice was very vital to the stories being told.  All of the issues could be pretty complex, but because of the narrator's voice, they come off kind of simple sounding or like she does not quite understand what's happening, which could or could not be true.

As I was reading, I  kept wondering and waiting if the small, separate stories were going to tie together or come full circle in the end, and the last few selections do do this.  "Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes" is a perfect ending to the stories that the narrator had been telling, it sums up that she likes to tell stories and that when she leaves Mango Street, people are going to 'wonder where she went with all those books and papers' because she is 'too strong to stay here forever.  It makes me pretty sure that the narrator is the author, Cisneros and this is basically her story growing up.

My favorite selections were "And Some More", I simply found it entertaining with all of the names and whatnot, and "Born Bad", I think that one really got a point across.  It could probably be said that all of these smaller stories within have messages to share, but I thought 'Born Bad' was the most insightful with the sickness of her aunt.

Rainy Lake Review

Rainy Lake by Mary Francois Rockcastle is the story of a young girl and the time she spent growing up at her parents' lake home during the summer throughout the 60's.

I found this novel to be very relatable despite not growing up in that era, not losing a brother, and not really going through any of the same situations that the main character, Danielle did growing up.  I really liked the idea that the novel was formed around just the summers and it didn't follow Danielle into the school year.

This novel really portrayed the Vietnam era well through the eyes of a white middle class teenage girl and at the same time it challenged readers to change their perspectives and look at things through another's mindset, just as Danielle tried to do with her first love, Billy.

I think this would probably be a great read for junior or senior level high school English class, as it does cover some heavy subjects.  I truly enjoyed it though!