Rita is exiled to Puerto Rico for a summer with her grandparents after her parents catch her with a boy. Luis sits atop a six-foot mountain of hubcaps in his father's junkyard, working off a sentence for breaking and entering. Sandra tries to reconcile her looks to the conventional Latino notion of beauty. And Arturo, different from his macho classmates, fantasizes about escaping his community. They are the teenagers of the barrio - and this is their world.


Praise for AN ISLAND LIKE YOU:


"[Cofer's] 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." - Booklist (starred review)


"The Caribbean flavor of the tales gives them their color and freshness, but the narratives have universal resonance. . . ." -Horn Book


Awards for AN ISLAND LIKE YOU:


A Recipient of the Pura Belpre Award (ALSC/REFORMA)


An ALA Best Book for Young Adults


A School of Library Journal Best Book of the Year


An ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers