Parrot in the Oven

Martinez, Victor.  Parrot in the Oven.  Harper Collins Publishers. 1996. 216pgs. 

This novel is about the life of a teenage Mexican boy living in the projects.  It gives a good insight into Mexican-American culture by telling stories about his family.  His father has had trouble finding work and continues to waste the small amount of money his family has on alcohol and consequently the rest of his family suffers because of this.  The family goes through many hardships including poverty, alcoholism, domestic violence, miscarriage, and gang life.

While the book does teach a lot about this culture, I do not know if I would recommend reading it with a class.  There is no real plot progression and the characters remain static throughout its entirety.  It is often times pretty engaging, however the events are arranged as “beads on a string”; one major event occurs, then it moves onto another without any real development or connection. 

The book is easy to read, but does use many Spanish phrases which would probably need to be translated.  If I were to read this with a class I would probably only read certain chapters rather than the entire book.  There are a lot of serious issues mentioned, but none of them are ever explained very in depth.  While the narrator is male, there are several female characters which would keep girls in a class engaged.  The reading level is very easy and could be taught to a sixth grade class.