The book is called Parrot in the oven: Mi Vida, by Victor
Martinez. He has written no other novels besides this one. Parrot in the oven
is about a boy named Manny Hernandez growing up in poverty and abuse, desiring
to be respected by his peers. Manny's story goes on, revealing many details
about his home life, and how his family really is. The theme of the story being
that you can reach for the stars, as long as you don't reach too high.
Manny's father believes that people are similar to money.
There are million, thousand, and hundred dollar people. Even ten and one dollar
people. To Manny's father, he was just a mere penny. Manny desires to be more
than that, someone who is respected. But it seems harder than it looks, as he
lives in poverty, and abuse as well. Manny struggles to live life well while
managing life at home with his family. His father goes on several drinking
binges, which cause many problems for the family.When he goes to school, he
helps out the boxing team during training and their matches as an attempt to
gain recognition among his fellow students. The boxing team only accepts him
because they want his older, stronger brother Nardo to join, but he doesn't
care. His sister Magda becomes ill afterwards, and her getting sick reveals
problems among the family, and the veil of happiness they hold begins to
ripple.
I haven't read any other books this interesting in a while,
and I highly recommend the book to others who enjoy reading a story in a
different sort of format, with a fictional story that holds more true to
modern-day problems that some may face elsewhere compared to other stories.
Even if you don't relate to the story or its characters, it still is an
interesting story, showing struggle and pain that isn't normally shown in many
stories, if any. Thoe who read it, won't regret it. Guaranteed.
Book Review by Thomas D.
This book sounds amazing! I really am interested in this book; I really want to read it now. What makes me interested in this book is basically his family life and his struggle at school. I love reading books like this to see how the child deals with it. A lot of times people like that have a happy place where they can go and it's like they are basically in their own world. I like hearing what they think about in that happy place. This reminds me of a book I got from the library it was so good. It was about a girl who's dad abused her, her mom didn't do anything about it, and she wasn't good at school; she had issues understanding a lot of material. So it talks about her and she tells about her happy place and one scene she was in her happy place after her dad just beat her and it tells about everything that is going through her mind. It's such a touching book. Anyways this reminds me a lot of this book; I hope I can read this book soon because it sounds very interesting.
ReplyDelete-Melissa H. B1
This book sounds very interesting after reading your review. What sounds really intriguing is that Manny overcomes his problems and tries to reach for his goals. A book similar to this one was ''Lockdown'' by Walter Dean Myers, Which is about a teenager in prison. He gets out and tries to do the best he can once he gets out. This review really made me want to read this book.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds pretty cool, the troubled protagonist and dysfunctional family kinda style isn't quite for me, but this i could make an exception for. Being accepted by family and peers can be important. The way that Manny's father views life is very interesting as well and makes me think what amount of money people in my life are. This book kinda reminds me of the book we are currently reading in English, Speak. It reminds me of speak because of the protagonist trying to fit into school but has a hard time, plus her family life is not great. Even though it's not my style I'd still pick up the book sometime.
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