Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida Analysis

This story takes place in the middle of California. But honestly, we don't hear much about California. Or the town where Manny and his family live. We know it has a couple of schools, rich-looking...

Manny is the big cheese in this narrative, and he's our narrator, too. We get the whole tale from his perspective, so as long as we're reading, we're stuck inside this guy's head and we are not get...

Parrot in the Oven has some serious drama afoot. And most of this drama revolves around family—the Hernandez bunch can be pretty crazy sometimes, and that makes family drama a major genre for thi...

Growing up ain't easy, and fittingly, Manny's tone as our narrator is complicated, too. Sometimes he gives us a tone that's super intimate, like he's letting us in on tons of secrets—and then we...

Manny is a pretty creative guy, and since he's our narrator, we're not surprised that the writing style is seriously descriptive. And since Manny is also a main character straddling two cultures, i...

Sometimes, it's tough to figure out where a title comes from. And then comes along a narrator like Manny, who tells us just what's up. Thanks, Manny.According to Manny, the phrase "parrot in the ov...

The ending of this book is a bit of a mixed bag. We have Manny joining a gang, which doesn't really seem like him—instead of trying to support his true friends or coax his big brother into gettin...

All in all, Manny tells his story in a pretty straightforward way. Sure, he uses a lot of metaphors and tackles some heavy topics like race and poverty, but he still gives us clear sentences that t...

Getting to Know YouThe Hernandez family is large and they've got drama to spare. From the moment we meet Manny, we learn that he has siblings with some serious attitudes, a dad who'd rather get d...

And the winner is…Victor Martinez. Parrot in the Oven won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 1996—proof that it's seriously awesome. (Source) And the winner is…Victor Ma...

If you're looking for steam, you're not going to find it in this book. Sure, there are some teenage hormones because of Manny's swooning when it comes to girls his age (oh, and way older teachers,...

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