Horn Book
(c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Fiction: O Twelve stories set in a New Jersey barrio feature Puerto Rican teenagers who speak in characteristic yet very distinct voices. The Caribbean flavor of the tales gives them their color and freshness, but the narratives have universal resonance in the vitality, the brashness, the self-centered hopefulness, and the angst expressed by the teens as they tell of friendships, failed romances, and worries over work, family, and school. Horn Rating: Outstanding, noteworthy in style, content, and/or illustration. Reviewed by: nv (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Gr. 7-12. "Dating is not a concept adults in our barrio really get." The contemporary teenage voices are candid, funny, weary, and irreverent in these stories about immigrant kids caught between their Puerto Rican families and the pull and push of the American dream. The young people hang out on the street in front of the tenement El Building in Paterson, New Jersey, where the radios are always turned full blast to the Spanish station and the thin walls can't hold the dramas of the real-life telenovelas. As in her autobiographical adult collection Silent Dancing (1990), Cofer depicts a diverse neighborhood that's warm, vital, and nurturing, and that can be hell if you don't fit in. Some of the best stories are about those who try to leave. Each piece stands alone with its own inner structure, but the stories also gain from each other, and characters reappear in major and minor roles. The teen narrators sometimes sound too articulate, their metaphors overexplained, but no neat resolutions are offered, and the metaphor can get it just right (the people next door "could be either fighting or dancing"). Between the generations, there is tenderness and anger, sometimes shame. In one story, a teenage girl despises the newcomer just arrived from the island, but to her widowed mother, the hick (jbaro) represents all she's homesick for. Raul Colon's glowing cover captures what's best about this collection: the sense of the individual in the pulsing, crowded street. --Hazel Rochman

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A pastiche of 12 short stories about Puerto RicanAmerican teenagers growing up in a New Jersey barrio. The first and longest story in the book--about a 15-year-old girl who is sent to stay with her grandparents in Puerto Rico for the summer--is a fine, self-contained achievement. The rest of the book revolves around a loosely linked group of youths; the central framework of the plotting is conflict--teenagers in conflict with their parents or grandparents, with their community, with themselves--and partial resolution. The first-person narrators--six girls and one boy--are slightly different people in slightly different situations, all of them participants in the tragedy of adolescence. They are the Holden Caulfields of the barrio. If they aren't all that sharply defined and tend to blend into one another, it is because they have not yet defined their own social personalities; unlike the heroes in the other stories, narrated in the third person, they are all still defining their perceived inferiorities. But the portrait of the common mentality that emerges--the spiritual tissue that connects a real-life setting, a way of thought, and a voice--is stunningly vivid and deep. And what characterizes this mentality above all else is its irony, which passes unscathed through even the most humbling experiences. Simultaneously serious, funny, and extremely lyrical, Cofer's intonation is authentic and her book has real worth. (Fiction. 12+)

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Gr. 7^-12. In a collection of short stories, Cofer shows immigrant teens in a Puerto Rican barrio caught between their families and the push and pull of the American dream.

Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

"Twelve consistently sparkling, sharp stories recreate the atmosphere of a Puerto Rican barrio," said PW in a starred review. "This fine collection may draw special attentions for its depictions of an ethnic group underserved by YA writers, but Cofer's strong writing [itself] warrants a close look." Ages 12-up. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Cofer's (Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood) 12 consistently sparkling, sharp short stories pungently recreate the atmosphere of a Puerto Rican barrio in Paterson, N.J. A different teenager is the focus of each entry, but the characters and the settings throughout are linked, often to great effect. In the poignant ``Don José of La Mancha,'' Yolanda observes both critically and sympathetically as her widowed mother gingerly approaches a new relationship-with a man Yolanda considers a clueless hick; the reader has previously met Yolanda in ``The One Who Watches,'' in which Yolanda's friend Doris describes the fear and anger she experiences as Yolanda goes shoplifting. In the surreally horrifying ``Matoa's Mirror,'' Kenny gets high on a mixture of drugs and then watches himself in a mirror, as if he's on TV, while he is getting beaten up outside his building. The overarching theme-the struggle to transcend one's roots but never succeeding (nor really wanting to)-is explored with enormous humanity and humor. This fine collection may draw special attention for its depictions of an ethnic group underserved by YA writers, but Cofer's strong writing warrants a close look no matter what the topic. Ages 12-up. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved