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In this unique collection of short stories, the small events of
daily life reveal big themes--love and friendship, youth and
growing up, success and failure. Calling on his own experiences of
growing up in California's Central Valley, poet Gary Soto brings to
life the joys and pains of young people everywhere. The smart,
tough, vulnerable kids in these stories are Latino, but their
dreams and desires belong to all of us.
Lincoln is in a jam when his basketball team at his new
school--where the students are rich and mostly white--faces his old
team from the barrio on the boards. How can he play his best
against his friends? No matter who wins, it looks like it will be
lose-lose for Lincoln.
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Afterlife (Paperback)
Gary Soto
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R403
R327
Discovery Miles 3 270
Save R76 (19%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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You'd think a knife in the ribs would be the end of things, but for
Chuy, that's when his life at last gets interesting. He finally
sees that people love him, faces the consequences of his actions,
finds in himself compassion and bravery . . . and even stumbles on
what may be true love. A funny, touching, and wholly original story
by one of the finest authors writing for young readers today.
In thirteen stories full of wit and energy, Gary Soto illuminates
the ordinary lives of young people. Meet Angel, who would rather
fork over twenty bucks than have photos of his naked body plastered
all over school; Philip, who discovers he has a "mechanical mind,"
whatever that means; Estela, known as Stinger, who rules Jose's
heart "and "the racquetball court; and many other kids, all of them
with problems as big as only a preteen can make them.
Funny, touching, and wholly original, "Local News" is Gary Soto in
top form.
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Novio Boy (Paperback)
Gary Soto
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R252
R205
Discovery Miles 2 050
Save R47 (19%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Ninth grader Rudy has a date with eleventh grader Patricia. Now he
has to come up with the money, the poise, and the conversation to
carry it off. This one-act play, by turns heartwarming and
heart-wrenching, follows Rudy from his desperate search for
guidance through the hilarious date itself--all the way to its
happy conclusion. "Includes a glossary of Spanish phrases."
Maria tries on her mother's wedding ring while helping make tamales for a Christmas family get-together. Panic ensues when hours later, she realizes the ring is missing.
Eddie's father, two uncles, and best friend are all dead, and it's
a struggle for him not to end up the same way. Violence makes
Fresno wallow in tears, as if a huge onion were buried beneath the
city. Making an effort to walk a straight line despite constant
temptations and frustrations, Eddie searches for answers--and
discovers that his closest friends may actually be his worst
enemies." Includes a reader's guide and a glossary of Spanish words
and phrases."
The Spanish Civil War, a precursor to World War II, was a testing
ground of not only political might between feuding factions in
Europe but also military hardware-modern tanks and aircraft from
Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy, for instance. The civil
war, which began in 1936 and ended in 1939, witnessed more than
500,000 deaths. One volunteer was Francisco Perez Lopez, Spanish by
birth but raised in France. He began as a recruit at the age of
twenty and emerged a platoon leader in roadside skirmishes,
firefights in villages and forests, and in the Battle of the Ebro,
the last stand for the Republican cause. He became a prisoner, a
medic, a favorite among nuns, and then an escapee-his feats for
survival are nothing less than genius. Gary Soto's condensed yet
artful and sensitive retelling is a gripping tale of human dignity
and one man's unflagging commitment to justice.
On his thirteenth birthday, Ronnie woke up feeling like a chimp -
all long armed, big eared, and gangly. Now his best friend, Joey,
has turned thirteen, too - and after Joey humiliates himself in
front of a cute girl, he climbs a tree and refuses to come down. So
Ronnie sets out to woo the girl on Joey's behalf. After all,
teenage chimps have to stick together.
A timely new edition of a pioneering work in Latino literature,
National Book Award nominee Gary Soto's first collection
(originally published in 1977) draws on California's fertile San
Joaquin Valley, the people, the place, and the hard agricultural
work done there by immigrants. In these poems, joy and anger,
violence and hope are placed in both the metaphorical and very real
circumstances of the Valley. Rooted in personal experiences-of the
poet as a young man, his friends, family, and neighbors-the poems
are spare but expansive, with Soto's voice as important as ever.
This welcome new edition has been expanded with a crucial selection
of complementary poems (some previously unpublished) and a new
introduction by the author.
This inspiring story of Jessie De La Cruz, the United Farmer
Workers, and la Causa is told as only Gary Soto-novelist, essayist,
poet, and himself a field laborer during his teens-can tell it,
with respect, empathy, and deep compassion for the working poor. A
field worker from the age of five, Jessie knew poverty, harsh
working conditions, and the exploitation of Mexicans and all poor
people. Her response was to take a stand. She joined the fledgling
United Farm Workers union and, at Cesar Chavez's request, became
its first woman recruiter. She also participated in strikes, helped
ban the crippling short-handle hoe, became a delegate to the
Democratic National Convention, testified before the Senate, and
met with the Pope. Jessie's life story personalizes an historical
movement and shows teens how an ordinary woman became extraordinary
through her will to make change happen, not just for herself but
for others.
Maria tries on her mother's wedding ring while helping make tamales for a Christmas family get-together. Panic ensues when hours later, she realizes the ring is missing.
Love is a good thing-so true in The Spark and Fire of It, this
classic one-act romance: two young people smitten to the point of
delirium and a gruff father who will have none of it. The father
sees his daughter's suitor only as a penniless lad with nothing to
offer. But the young woman's mother sees her own husband in the
young man, remembering a time when he, too, was an empty-handed
suitor. Add internal complications: the young women questions her
own judgment, and the young man is tempted by a hooligan called
Rascal. Then there is Old Gentleman, who, like a befuddled
Socrates, understands this thing called love. The romance contains
poems that begin with a line of Shakespeare that Soto artfully
extends into his own original poetry. The dialogue is written in
the vernacular of Elizabethan times-though occasionally it falls
into contemporary street slang. The code switching reminds readers
that love is a human experience that makes the young go crazy no
matter the century!
"Sudden Loss of Dignity" represents where Gary Soto is in his life.
He finds himself positioned in life as the older gent, or old guy.
His poetry mirrors his personality, snarky and full of mockery.
Soto writes about mainly aging and the loss of one's dignity as the
years pass. It's very funny, poignant, sad, and especially true.
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Gabe (Paperback)
Gary Soto
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R332
Discovery Miles 3 320
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Thirteen-year-old Gabe Mendoza is headed to the public library when
he hears a voice call, ""Son."" Gabe sizes up an approaching
vagrant. ""It's me, your dad.""Dad? Couldn't be. This man looks
homeless—is homeless. He's hauling a suitcase with everything he
possesses—nothing. To Gabe, the figure doesn't look right. He's
wearing a sweatshirt on a hot summer afternoon. His neck is filthy,
his teeth rotten in an unsmiling mouth.  Gabe's father
had abandoned him and his mother five years earlier. As the story
unfolds, Gabe wrestles with confusion. Should he give his father a
second chance—the father who is now destitute, possibly ill,
pathetic, and an alcoholic? Life has never been easy for Gabe on
the streets of Fresno. He's always escaping trouble, especially
from Frankie Torres, who practices his gangbanging tactics on
Gabe. The novella is quick as anger, but Gabe isn't angry.
There's tenderness in his troubled heart. It is meant to be read
more than once—each reading will reveal more about his mother,
playground life, forgiveness, and the healing nature of dog that
comes into his life. . . . The afternoon was hot, maddening hot. He
stopped under a tree and spied the temperature on the corner bank
building: 104. Through the wavering heat, he eyed a figure in a
49ers sweatshirt. Dang, Gabe thought. What's wrong with this guy? A
sweatshirt in this heat? ""Son,"" the figure beckoned to him. Son?
Gabe wondered. Was this homeless man looking for a handout? ""It's
me, your dad."" The figure in dirty clothes was pulling a large
suitcase on wheels. The man did his best to hoist a smile. The
vagrant did resemble his dad, whom Gabe hadn't seen in four years.
His dad had driven away in the family's best car, with his clothes
and the household computer in the backseat. He had also loaded the
car with cases of soda and bottledwater, as if he were thirsty for
a life other than the one he had with them. . . "" He's homeless,""
Gabe whispered to himself. Everything he owned was stuffed in that
suitcase on wheels, which he hauled like a donkey pulling a cart.
This inspiring story of Jessie De La Cruz, the United Farmer
Workers, and la Causa is told as only Gary Soto -- novelist,
essayist, poet, and himself a field laborer during his teens -- can
tell it, with respect, empathy, and deep compassion for the working
poor.
A field worker from the age of five, Jessie knew poverty, harsh
working conditions, and the exploitation of Mexicans and all poor
people. Her response was to take a stand. She joined the fledgling
United Farm Workers union and, at Cesar Chavez's request, became
its first woman recruiter. She also participated in strikes, helped
ban the crippling short-handle hoe, became a delegate to the
Democratic National Convention, testified before the Senate, and
met with the Pope.
Jessie's life story personalizes an historical movement and
shows teens how an ordinary woman became extraordinary through her
will to make change happen, not just for herself but for
others.
These small essays are not unlike Dutch paintings of the sixteenth
century. They are clear and precisely rendered, and are either
thematically domestic scenes or pedestrian in their observations of
the ordinary. There is a delirious joy in Soto's writings, and
heartbreak. This collection features his much-lauded essays "The
Jacket" and "Like Mexicans," along with new essays such as
"Childhood Worries, or Why I Became a Writer," "Getting It Done,"
and the title essay in which Soto fashions himself to be Fresno's
own Knut Hamsun, the Norwegian writer of the 1920s who lived on
nothing more than his five senses. Poet and critic Christopher
Buckley said of his poetry, " Soto has] mastered his form, has
found his voice, and has the life experiences to provide meaningful
content." He could have been speaking of his prose as well. Soto is
at home with the essay; he is able to paint moments that would
otherwise seem dull and not worthy of comment. He picks up
hitchhikers, sorts through the mystery of finding a wife, and pulls
together his wits to solve the hunger of stray dogs. He is tender
and outrageous; he is reflective on worldly matters and cagey with
his family and friends. In all, his dazzling effects of language
will keep the reader continually surprised.These portraits are set
in his hometown, Fresno, and in his current residence, the San
Francisco Bay area. They therefore mark his time and place, but
honor the instincts of the master Knut Hamsun, who walked around
his town, a spectacle of wonder. This volume includes forty-eight
pieces: all of the personal narratives formerly collected in Small
Faces, the best of Lesser Evils both volumes long out-of-print as
well as five new essays."
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