Call Me Maria

An okay book

The book Call Me Maria...is an awesome book to read...It would be a really good book to those who like poetry and prose. I enjoyed really the book!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A Puertorican must read for teens!

In my class the students get engaged and relate to Maria. Excellent book!

I am deeply moved

Judith Ortiz Cofer did a magnificent job of mixing poetry and prose. I Read it again and again, and it made me feel as if I know Maria in real life. Great book about searching for your identity and expressing yourself through verse.

Recommended if you are looking for a great short novel!

"Call Me Maria" by Judith Ortiz Cofer was published by Scholastic, Inc on July 28, 2006 in New York, NY. I enjoyed reading about the inspirational yet challenging journey of the main character, Maria. Maria is a young girl raised by her mother and father on the island of Puerto Rico. However, her father was raised in New York and has longed to go back to his homeland. Maria's mother loves her island and insists on staying there. It comes about that her father will be moving to New York for a while and Maria has to decide if she wants to accompany him or stay in Puerto Rico with her mother. Maria worries about her dad going to the United States by himself so she decides she will go with him. When they arrive in the U.S, it is not how Maria imagined it to be. Maria and her father can only afford to live in a small basement apartment with only one window above Maria's desk where she watches people's feet scurry by on the sidewalk. She feels like an outsider to this new world, but her father feels like he is back at home. She is able to make some friends that live in her apartment building including her new best friend Whoopee which helps her a little bit. Maria's first language is Spanish, but her mother had been teaching her English so that she will be able to get into college in a few years. However, many people in the "barrio" speak "Spanglish" including Maria's father. Maria considers this a third language that she wants to pick up. In the mean time she writes letters back and forth to her mother to keep practicing her proper English. Some of the story is told through letters, poems, or Maria's point of view. I enjoyed this book because it told about a young girls first experience in the United States and how scary and unfamiliar it was to her. Even though she is thrown in this hard situation she still aspires to be like her mother and father, carrying two backgrounds, languages, and histories. She says. "I will break through the concrete and reach for the sun like the fist flower of the spring." When Maria said this, she is describing how she wants to come out of this experience living in the barrio and reach for the stars and become everything she wants to be. Nothing will hold her back but only make her stronger. This book taught me to go out and learn new things and go to new places. Also to never let anything hold me back and that things that make people different make them special in their own way. I do recommend people to read this book and find out how Maria and her father cope with life in New York and how her family deals with being separated for this time. This book helps people to get to see things that they may never think of or have never dealt with in their lives. This story will give you the confidence and motivation to go out and be who you truly are, "I know who I am and who I may be if I chose."

I enjoyed reading this book!!

Call Me Maria is an interesting book, about a young spanish girl who chose to move to NY with her dad. Rather then stay with her mother and her island memories. Maria has alot of adjusting to do in her new home as well as her American lifestyle image is limited. She has a happy side and a sad side and she is able to express both by writing poems. She is Maria Alegre and Maria Triste. Maria is also able to recognize the different people she comes in contact with and compares the difference with Puerto Rico upbringing and NY. She realized that it doesnt matter where you come from, home is where you make the best of it. Maria lives life by a basement window watching all sorts of people walk by in different styles and all are here for the same purpose. To live their lives as best and happy as they can. I have recommended this book to my cousin who moved from PR to Ohio. So he can see that someone else also shares his feelings, of leaving one parent behind and making a new life in a new town. I liked that Maria was able to expand her mind and was able to see other people without judging them and giving them a chance and herself a chance to see how other people live and think.

Call Me Maria

The book I read called Call Me Maria by Judith Ortiz Cofer is about a young girl that comes to America from Puerto Rico because of her father wanting to leave. And so she goes with him to experience the new world which she has never been to before but she has to sacrifice leaving her mother behind and the only way to stay in contact with her is by writing letters back and forth. Maria is just trying to find her place in the new world that she now lives in by trying to lose her island accent and to make new friends.
Maria lives in an apartment building or a barrio with her father who is that super of the house. There she meets new friends and experiences what its like to like a new boy who is in love with himself and how that can break people¿s hearts. While she looks up to the cement sidewalks of the busy New York City roads, she watches peoples feet walk past her basement window and expresses that every person who walks by has a different story about why they are in the City and that encourages her to start writing poetry about her new home.
While she is writing poetry, she is also writing letters to her mother back at the island of Puerto Rico telling her all about her new experiences, the people she meets, but also how much she misses the smell and feel of the island compared to the dullness of the skyscrapers and gray roads of the city. Maria is torn between two cultures by becoming separated from her mother along with the world that she has known her entire life.

It's an okay Book....

This book is good for those who like poetry, like me... Told by letters and a poems. A young girl is about to discover something that or might change her life completely...
All you have to is read the book to find out what's is that "something" that would change her life.

A reviewer

Call Me Maria by Judith Ortiz Cofer was a great book. Maria is a teenager who had lived with her parents in Puerto Rico since she was born. When her Papi decides that he wants to go back to New York where he grew up, she goes with him, to help him get settled. She hopes that she can get an American education and go to college. When she gets there, she doesn't fit in. She calls herself Maria Triste(Sad Maria), and in Puerto Rico, she was Maria Alegre(Happy Maria). She has to learn to live in a city, where no one speaks like she does, and the weather is so much different. She writes poetry to ease her pain of leaving her home. She meets a friend named Whoopee, and her new life begins to get brighter. This is a great book for young adults, it shows how even in the worst times, things can get better.

Call Me Maria

This book is the story of Maria. Maria is a 15 year old girl who was born in Puerto Rico. She goes and lives with her father in NYC while her mother stays behind in Puerto Rico. Her and her mother communicate using Poems. In Maria's poems she writes her feelings about not fitting in, her friends and neighbors, the boy on her street and other surroundings. I really enjoyed reading this book because it was easy to understand. You also could relate to Maria and it felt like you were feeling what she was going through during this hard time.

No text was provided for this review.