Living Up the Street by Gary Soto, Strawberry Hill Press

Synopsis

In a prose that is so beautiful it is poetry, we  see the world of growing up and going somewhere  through the dust and heat of Fresno's industrial  side and beyond: It is a boy's coming of age in the  barrio, parochial school, attending church, public  summer school, and trying to fall out of love so he  can join in a Little League baseball team.

  His is a clarity that rings constantly through the  warmth and wry reality of these sometimes  humorous, sometimes tragic, always human remembrances.

Annotation

The author describes his experiences growing up as a Mexican American in Fresno, California.

Publishers Weekly

These 21 pungent narrative recollections explore the vicissitudes of growing up in the barrio. Ages 12-up. (Mar.)

Biography

Gary Soto has written six poetry collections, prose recollections, and several books of essays.  His first young adult short story collection, Baseball in April and Other Stories, has been one of the most widely discussed and reviewed books of 1990.  He is Associate Professor of Chicano Studies and English at the University of California, Berkeley.