Book review: The House on Mango Street

The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, is a series of prose vignettes (with a little bit of poetry thrown in) that chronicles a pre-teenaged girl, Esperanza, growing up on Mango Street in Chicago. The prose is beautifully written, the stories hauntingly sad at times. Each chapter is only 1 to 3 pages long, each describing the people and places that Esperanza encounters. The overriding theme of the book is how Esperanza belongs but doesn't want to belong to Mango Street. She is and is not Mango Street.

Overall, I'd rate this book a 9 out of 10, and I plan to keep it on my bookshelf for the time being.