"Do you sometimes wish you didn't have to go home? Do you wish your feet would one day keep walking and take you far away from Mango Street, far away and maybe your feet would stop in front of a house, a nice one with flowers and big windows and steps for you to climb up two by two upstairs to where a room is waiting for you."

An absolutely enchanting series of lyrical vignettes about a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago and her quest to understand life, herself, and where she belongs.

Oh Sandra, you took a tiny little baby knife, pearl handled and invisible, and sliced open my heart. I had forgotten. I had forgotten what it was like to not know about the world. To not know it's bigger than the miniscule pocket of my childhood. I had forgotten what it was like to not understand why adults do what they do, how some kids have no choice but to grow up too fast, how the bad things shape you as much as the mundane, as much as the beautiful, as much as the profane. I had forgotten what it was like to believe my reality was the only reality while dreaming of a different reality.

You reminded me in a flood.

This is a 110 page book. It will either introduce you to a world you've never been to or take you back to the one you came from. Please do yourself a favor and read it.