Fitting in - Softcover

Bernardo, Anilu

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1558854371 ISBN 13: 9781558854376

Publisher: Arte Publico Press, 2005

Synopsis

This short story collection by Anilu Bernardo, takes us from the soccer field to the seashore. Her spunky Cuban-American protagonists navigate the uncertain waters of adolescence in Miami, and their lot is all that much harder as they juggle the traditional burdens of middle school and high school coupled with the stresses of living those burdens in a foreign culture. Bernardo crafts a panorama of intelligent and spirited young girls struggling to find a place for themselves. Like when Sari wants to talk about boys and school with her friends instead of babysitting for Grandma, who always asks her to translate the most embarrassing things.... or when Clari stews in her room after she's grounded because the snippy old woman next door complained about Clari bending her stupid fence ... or when Mari turns in a homemade diorama in a context where her work must compete with all the store-bought iridescent paper and underwater photography that parents with money can buy... Bernardo shows that it's tough enough to be caught between the two worlds of childhood and womanhood, but when a Cuban girl must cross the bridge between two cultures to fit into a foreign environment, she faces a league of other headaches as well. The young girls in this collection don't let the cultural challenges define them. Instead, with a little resourcefulness and strong spirit, they manage to, in the words of one character, break out of themselves and the limits that culture puts on them.

About this title

From the Publisher:

Recipient of a 1997 Skipping Stones Award and the Paterson Prize for Young Adult Literature.

About the Author:

Anilu Bernardo's award-winning books for young readers include Fitting In (Pinata Books, 1996), recipient of the 1997 Paterson Prize for Young People and the 1997 Skipping Stones Honor Award; Jumping Off to Freedom (Pinata Books, 1996); and Loves Me, Loves Me Not (Pinata Books, 1998), which was named to the American Library Association's 2000 Yalsa Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults and The New York Public Library's 2000 Books for the Teen Age. She currently lives in Plantation, Florida with her family.

About this edition

• Publisher: Arte Publico Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1558854371
• ISBN 13: 9781558854376
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 223