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A review by sarahanne8382
Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx by Sonia Manzano
5.0
What an unexpected treasure. Having someone who's spent her career in children's edutainment write a memoir about her childhood is a bit magical.
Manzano's earliest memories sound like a scene right out of Sesame Street with a random preschooler. She manages to tap into what it's like to be a child and how differently a child's mind works in a way than many memoirs of childhood miss. Enough time has passed that she has some real perspective on the events of her childhood, but she shows restraint in letting them play out the way her childhood self remembers them and only hinting around the edges at the conclusions she drew in later years.
And then there's the story itself - learning about the world of the South Bronx in the '50s and '60s, meeting her large and close Puerto Rican family with a variety of eccentric characters, the unraveling of the dysfunction in her family, and eventually, her discovery of a way out of that cycle.
This wasn't what I expected, but I should have known that someone who's spent so many years as an integral part of show that doesn't shy away from telling kids hard truths would take a similar approach to her memoir for adults. And she manages the switch in audiences masterfully. Since this is all about her life before Sesame Street, you really don't have to have any interest in the show to care about this book. It's a compelling coming-of-age story about a young Latina in the Bronx overcoming a tough family situation by discovering and following her passion for acting.
Manzano's earliest memories sound like a scene right out of Sesame Street with a random preschooler. She manages to tap into what it's like to be a child and how differently a child's mind works in a way than many memoirs of childhood miss. Enough time has passed that she has some real perspective on the events of her childhood, but she shows restraint in letting them play out the way her childhood self remembers them and only hinting around the edges at the conclusions she drew in later years.
And then there's the story itself - learning about the world of the South Bronx in the '50s and '60s, meeting her large and close Puerto Rican family with a variety of eccentric characters, the unraveling of the dysfunction in her family, and eventually, her discovery of a way out of that cycle.
This wasn't what I expected, but I should have known that someone who's spent so many years as an integral part of show that doesn't shy away from telling kids hard truths would take a similar approach to her memoir for adults. And she manages the switch in audiences masterfully. Since this is all about her life before Sesame Street, you really don't have to have any interest in the show to care about this book. It's a compelling coming-of-age story about a young Latina in the Bronx overcoming a tough family situation by discovering and following her passion for acting.