The House on Mango Street is less a novel with a single storyline than a collection of “vignettes”—short, often poetic stories about life in Chicago, growing up as a Latina girl.

What literary critics (and people who like to sound important) call a bildungsroman—a coming of age novel, The House on Mango Street relates the stories of Esperanza Cordero in a series of touching tales about learning responsibility, overcoming hardship, and embracing diversity.

Few books possess the sort of poeticism that Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street displays at every turn of the page, and the delightful rhythm of speech and narration makes this series of stories a pleasure to peruse.