Neighborhood Odes

In this collection, award-winning poet Gary Soto pays tribute to all the little things that make a neighborhood what it is, from family to fireworks; pinatas to pets; snow cones to sprinklers; tortillas to tennis shoes. With verses that are by turns exuberant and thoughtful, heartfelt and humorous, Soto finds universal themes in the ordinary objects and events that make up all of our lives. Neighborhood Odes deftly brings the rhythms of everyday life in a Mexican American community to the page. Book jacket.

GARY SOTO's first book for young readers, Baseball in April and Other Stories, won the California Library Association's Beatty Award and was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. He has since published many more books, including two more collections of short stories, a play, several volumes of poetry, and many novels, among them The Afterlife. He lives in Berkeley, California.