Judith Ortiz Cofer

Explores the art of storytelling, discussing how to develop the skill of shaping a story so that listeners are able to relate to it on a personal level, looks at the key elements of storytelling, and includes an annotated list of stories, a bibliography of collections, and a brief list of recommendations for online sources.

Fifteen-year-old Maria leaves her mother and their Puerto Rican home to live in a barrio of New York with her father, feeling torn between the two cultures in which she has been raised.

A collection of poems, short stories, and essays address the theme of straddling two cultures as do the offspring of Hispanic parents living in the United States.

Great Expectations / novel by Charles Dickens -- The duke's children / short story by Frank O'Connor -- selection from Silent Dancing / autobiographical essay by Judith Ortiz Cofer -- You are a part of me / poem by Frank Yerby -- Time does not bring relief / poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay -- The pleasant Marey / article by Fyodor Dostoevsky -- The spinster's day/Journada de la soltera / poem by Rosario Castellanos ; translated by Magda Bogin -- The jilting of Granny Weatherall / short story by Katherine Anne Porter -- The house on the hill / poem by Edward Arlington Robinson.

Collection of poetry focusing on Latino culture and domestic life.

Twelve stories about young people caught between their Puerto Rican heritage and their American surroundings.

A collection of writings by the poet, novelist, and essayist recalling her childhood spent shuttling between the land of her birth and the family's home in New Jersey. Ortiz Cofer recalls her childhood spent travelling between the heat of Puerto Rico and the cold of New Jersey with a personal and convincing voice. Themes of adapting to the big city, New York, feminine roles, culture shock, and immigration tinge this moving collection of stories. The narrative is also enriched by poems.

The beliefs of a simple Puerto Rican village are entwined with the struggles of daily life in an immigrant community in New Jersey through the adventures of Guzman, exiled from the village of Salud, and his adoring niece and biographer, Marisol.

A collection of four Puerto Rican folktales featuring a lions, mice and a brave little ant, as well as other animals.

When a poet moves into the apartment above hers, young Juliana asks to meet her and together they write poems of tropical birds and a river that flows to the sea, typing out words that change the world, if only for a while.

When fifteen-year-old Doris's mother, a professional singer, returns to Puerto Rico and her father finds a girlfriend, Doris cares for a neighbor's pigeons and relies on friends as she begins to find her own voice and wings.