Review ↠ PDF, DOC, TXT, eBook or Kindle ePUB free Ñ Gary Soto

What do Gaby Lopez Michael Robles and Cynthia Rodriguez have in common These three kids join other teens and tweens in Gary Soto's new short story. This book is a collection of short stories Each story is narrated by a young Latina and offers a snapshot into their life Some of the stories tell of a major life event finding out they were born illegally while others deal with daily adolescent traumas feeling as if you don't fit into your family This book would fit in nicely to any middle or high school unit that deals with examining lives None of the stories are sugar coated or overly done In most the narrator is better able to articulate their internal thoughts and feeling better than the average teenager but the content is real enough to pull most kids in

Gary Soto Ñ 2 Characters

Facts of Life StoriesCollection in which the hard knock facts of growing up are captured with humor and poignance Filled with annoying siblings Facts of Kindle diffi. Short story collections are always fun to see their inter connectedness even if it is only coming from my desire to want that to be so Here we go with FACTS OF LIFE1 WHERE DID I GO WRONG This story is much like the last story D IN ENGLISH in that you have a character crashing about the neighborhoodgoing from situation to situationliving moment to momentyou see the Mickey cajoled into helping local kid only to find out he is aiding in a theftthis is juxtaposed against Mickey being given adult responsibilities by his father though it almost kills the man this is one of the thematic threadsmoving into a responsible role in life Mickey wants to make music but doesn't know how to play The story is a bit all over the placebut overhanging is the dread of being caughtbeing kept from moving forwardfor reasons not entirely your fault2 CAPTURING THE MOMENT Instead of being duped into crime here our protagonist Gaby is frustrated in her efforts to move forward by the educational systemspecifically a teacher who has put Gaby into a category in her brainGaby who wants to be an artist paints a idyllic scene that appeared on her property following a great stormthere was a lake formedand birds cameGaby drew itand took it to school for praiseonly to be told she was a liarthis is not unlike another girl later in the series THE IDEAL CITY who is ridiculed when she presents to her classmates her version of a perfect societyand her teacher largely lets the class run over her and then the teacher shakes her head when that character stays in the classroom and presents to an empty room The way in which the education system here isolates girls specifically is strong3 IDENTITY THEFT Here is another girlthe story is a bit of a toss offAna learns perspective when she is at once a threatened by a new girl who has her same first and last name b moves to Escondido and c becomes a new girl with the same first and last name of another girl Soto gets bonus for mentioning Chula Vista and Escondido areas close to my own house in Scripps Ranchand maybeif you take in the other female storiesyou see the blanding of women as a theme Identity This blanding also takes shape in CITIZEN OF THE WORLD4 YOU DECIDE A young boy must choose which parent he will live withhe ultimately decides to take his dog and find a better familyI have a feeling this won't end well The cleaving away from parents is a strong theme here seen in WHERE DID I GO WRONG THE BABYSITTER and D IN ENGLISHso is the beauty of nature the comfort we get from the natural world seen in CAPTURING THE MOMENT YOU DECIDE CITIZEN OF THE WORLD5 THE BABYSITTER While mom's away a terrible babysitter comes in and takes away innocence innocentlywe are talking cuts bumps bruises hair dye that won't come out etc nothing jarring This I'm assuming is a counterpoint to YOU DECIDE The girl in the story is troubled at the end mainly because she is having trouble differentiating between the madness that the girl brings to the house and the way her own mother was prettied up for her night outloss of innocencedrinking coffee at the endthe blanding of women6 CITIZEN OF THE WORLD Despite worldly experiences our female protagonist is experiencing an existential crisisby being connected to so muchshe is disconnecting from any specific thing This runs a bit contrary to my own experiences in San Diego working with Latino youththere is a very very specific sense of placebut these kids that I know haven't traveled7 WISE UNCLE JOE back to a male protagonistUncle Joe is wise because he knows how to con people Loss of innocence central here as the protagonist learns to let go of his horror for lying to people in order to sell weeds wreaths Loss of innocenceloss of identity8 SEEING THE FUTURE This is a positive story for a change as a young girl in love with a user of a boyfriend sees a couple that could be them in 5 yearsand immediately dumps the chump to make a better life for herself Yay 9 IDEAL CITY The female protagonist is bullied like crazy and hides within herself creating an idyllic world without fear and competition No one cares Very sad Soto likes to put out bullies that go uncheckedand learning to live through bullies I don't really care for thatI think we have worked hard in schools to give kids a voice Soto needs to perhaps let go of his own experiences from the 60s and 70s and see that things might be a little different in today's society Yes bullying continuesbut it isn't a rite of passage10 D IN ENGLISH The male protagonist stumbles through a bunch of avoidance techniues literally laying low three times in the story and seeing himself replaced as a sononly to rise upand see people who are kindand trying to make a better worldOverallSoto might be trying to say we all have dreams people will use them to extort you people will see your dreams as weakness and target you your dreams will reuire a loss of self giving up who you thought you were your dreams will reuire you to take chances and stand up