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valjeanval's review
4.0
I'm betting Sonia Manzaon hear's "I grew up with you," an awful lot. It's probably true every time too: 44 years a is a long time to be on a television show and a number of successive generations are taught and inspired by it. Maria was always one of my favorites because so many of her scenes were with Oscar, and Oscar is best muppet. Also Super Grover. I digress.
My school district brought Sonia to speak at our district literacy training, and event which (as a math teacher) was less than useless for me and was starting to make me question career choices. Finishing with her was very smart. Listening to her talk about the power of art and literature and diversity reinvigorated me and made me stop counting the hours of summer vacation left for just a little while. I bought her memoir without a second thought.
This book is heart-wrenching, and made more so because it is probably not a big step away from where my students are right now. Sonia writes candidly and powerfully about her experiences with abuse, racism, sexism, and culture shock in and outside of the country where she was born. Some chapters physically hurt me to read, and others inspired me to be a better teacher to my students, to know that even if we come from different places, we can still connect if we recognize each other as humans. It's a good time in our cultural history to read this book too.
This isn't necessarily a book for Sesame Street fans of all ages, but I think it exemplifies the core of love and tolerance, even in chaos, at its heart.
My school district brought Sonia to speak at our district literacy training, and event which (as a math teacher) was less than useless for me and was starting to make me question career choices. Finishing with her was very smart. Listening to her talk about the power of art and literature and diversity reinvigorated me and made me stop counting the hours of summer vacation left for just a little while. I bought her memoir without a second thought.
This book is heart-wrenching, and made more so because it is probably not a big step away from where my students are right now. Sonia writes candidly and powerfully about her experiences with abuse, racism, sexism, and culture shock in and outside of the country where she was born. Some chapters physically hurt me to read, and others inspired me to be a better teacher to my students, to know that even if we come from different places, we can still connect if we recognize each other as humans. It's a good time in our cultural history to read this book too.
This isn't necessarily a book for Sesame Street fans of all ages, but I think it exemplifies the core of love and tolerance, even in chaos, at its heart.
bfth23's review
3.0
It is the subtitle that is more accurate than Becoming Maria. It is the story of Sonia as she grew up and grew into the actress she became. There is nothing Sesame Street here, other than her audition (which comes at the end of the book). This is the tale of growing up poor and Puerto Rican in New York. It's not a pretty tale, but it is not meant to be.
yapha's review
5.0
This was powerful and intense and I wasn't able to put it down. Sonia Manzano is an excellent storyteller and her life story drew me in from the first pages. She doesn't pull any punches, but lays out the gritty, raw reality of her early childhood through the end of her teens. Highly recommended for grades 9 & up.
ARC provided by publisher
ARC provided by publisher
orangerful's review against another edition
4.0
I can't think of anyway else to describe this but a first-person limited memoir. Sonia Manzano tells her own story of growing up in the South Bronx and channels her childhood, writing the book from her point of view as a girl growing up in the 1950s New York City. She does not make any reference to her life today, she does not talk about the things that happened to her as a child in the context of how we view things today. She and her mother are both beaten, they live in the ghetto, she talks about being felt up by strangers, but she tells it as if it is just happening, never stepping out of that moment.
This is definitely a young adult/adult biography, if only because of the abuse that takes place and the occasional f-bomb that gets dropped.
To me, this felt like an honest and revealing look at growing up as a child of Puerto Rican immigrants in the United States and also growing up a girl and also growing up ethnic but in a way that is both invisible and visible when it comes to the United States.
This is definitely a young adult/adult biography, if only because of the abuse that takes place and the occasional f-bomb that gets dropped.
To me, this felt like an honest and revealing look at growing up as a child of Puerto Rican immigrants in the United States and also growing up a girl and also growing up ethnic but in a way that is both invisible and visible when it comes to the United States.
nerfherder86's review
3.0
Sonia Manzano, actress for many years as "Maria" on Sesame Street, tells her childhood memories growing up the daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants in a series of apartments and houses around New York City, through her teen years, when she discovered acting and went to a school for the performing arts, and then landing at Carnegie Mellon. It's an interesting memoir, with fragmented memories and reconstructed dialogue to impart the feel of the emotions/scenes she remembers experiencing. I found the writing style a little difficult to follow at times, because of the many run-on sentences, kind of stream-of-consciousness stuff. Her mother tried to free Sonia and her two younger brothers from living with their abusive alcoholic father, but they always seemed to end up back together. So the warm memories of large family gatherings and festive Puerto Rican customs are intermingled with the terror and uncertainties of what would happen if father came home drunk. She writes about wanting to leave her situation and avoid ending up pregnant, stuck in a dead end life, like many of her friends and cousins. She also writes about experiencing racism and socioeconomic discrimination, especially in high school and college. While teen-appropriate, there are some profanities and f-bombs (and references to the hippie drug culture of the 60's) that I would say make it inappropriate for a middle school audience.
wintermote's review
3.0
As a child of the 90s, I was intrigued by this book by a feature of my childhood Sesame Street experience. Her experiences were fairly interesting. I didn’t think the literary quality was all that great, but the last chapter really had some redeeming qualities that made this feel more like a 4-star book. The story of her interview for Sesame Street and the way the book closed was very nicely done and effective!
eupomene's review
3.0
Maria was one of my favorite characters on Sesame Street when I was watching it in the early 70s. And again in the early 80s during my babysitting years. I was glad to find this book, though I'd loved to have read about her time on Sesame Street. This is strictly childhood thru college.
BONUS! Sonia who plays Maria is also Sonia who sang "Turn Back O Man" in the original cast of Godspell, a record that I grew up listening to. This is something I only recently discovered and I was delighted to get a chapter from her about that experience!
BONUS! Sonia who plays Maria is also Sonia who sang "Turn Back O Man" in the original cast of Godspell, a record that I grew up listening to. This is something I only recently discovered and I was delighted to get a chapter from her about that experience!
libscote's review
3.0
I liked this biography, which consists of little vignettes from Manzano's life. I'm not 100% sure it will appeal to young kids, but I could see older tweens and teens getting into this book. As an adult, I enjoyed it. Manzano's writing is clear, and her stories transport you into her life in the South Bronx, and beyond.