Between the Pages

by Sandra Cisneros PLOT SUMMARY Esperanza, the protagonist, is about twelve years old at the novel’s opening. She lives in a small Chicago community where most inhabitants are of Latin descent. Her house is situated on Mango Street; however, Esperanza would hardly call her abode a house. While the house is much better than her previous place, the dwelling is a small flat with crumbling brick and mismatched materials. In this small apartment, Esperanza has no space specifically dedicated to her. Cisneros’s dreamt-up neighborhood creates the perfect, cramped lifestyle in which Esperanza is forced to turn to her neighbors for experiences, new thoughts, and inputs: good and bad. Esperanza quickly makes friends with Rachel and Lucy who enter puberty right along-side her during this year in Esperanza’s life. The group of friends, plus Esperanza’s tag-along kid sister, Nenny, explore the neighborhood and have many adventures including wearing high-heels around town, buying a bike...

Over the holiday season, I gifted my family and friends with books, as I believe there is no greater gift than one of lessons, characters, and eloquent words. In return, I was also given books as gifts. Please note, these books are specified to my friends’ tastes as well as my own. However, I believe that these are overall good books and could inspire gifts for your family as well. First, the books I gave. Pride and Prejudice By Jane Austen Austen’s Bennet-Darcy romance was perfect to captivate a family member of mine currently going through chemotherapy. Accompanied by a journal and some pens, the best of Austen’s work made the perfect gift to read and think of during treatment. The Log Cabin: An Illustrated History By Andrew Belonsky Populated with an abundance of pictures of cabins ranging from sweetly simple to intricately designed, Belonsky’s book is the perfect gift for someone who loves the history of the frontiersman and what they crafted with th...