Part essay, part poetry, part collage of student writing and personal reflections, this book uses metaphor to evoke the interactions and anguishes of a high school English teacher's day, a juggling act of efforts to help the demoralized and disruptive while still trying to make learning meaningful. In the book, the English teacher's students speak…

This is a collection of 20 stories that focus specifically on the experience of growing up Chicana/o. A foreword by Rudolfo Anaya provides background on the development of Chicano literature. The stories are presented in four sections that explore the themes of heritage and actual and metaphorical boundaries, the importance of grandparents and…