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How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
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Average Rating
Published:
Algonquin Books 2010
Accelerated Reader:
IL: UG - BL: 6.2 - AR Pts: 13
Lexile measure:
950L
Status:
Checked Out
Description
Named A Great American Novel by The Atlantic!
From the international bestselling author of In the Time of the Butterflies and Afterlife, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents  is "poignant...powerful... Beautifully captures the threshold experience of the new immigrant, where the past is not yet a memory." (The New York Times Book Review)

Don't miss Alvarez’s new novel, The Cemetery of Untold Stories, available now!
Acclaimed writer Julia Alvarez’s beloved first novel gives voice to four sisters as they grow up in two cultures. The García sisters—Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofía—and their family must flee their home in the Dominican Republic after their father’s role in an attempt to overthrow brutal dictator Rafael Trujillo is discovered. They arrive in New York City in 1960 to a life far removed from their existence in the Caribbean. In the wondrous but not always welcoming U.S.A., their parents try to hold on to their old ways as the girls try find new lives: by straightening their hair and wearing American fashions, and by forgetting their Spanish. For them, it is at once liberating and excruciating to be caught between the old world and the new. Here they tell their stories about being at home—and not at home—in America.
"Alvarez helped blaze the trail for Latina authors to break into the literary mainstream, with novels like In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents winning praise from critics and gracing best-seller lists across the Americas."—Francisco Cantú, The New York Times Book Review
"A clear-eyed look at the insecurity and yearning for a sense of belonging that are a part of the immigrant experience . . . Movingly told." —The Washington Post Book World
 
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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
01/12/2010
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781616200985
ASIN:
B00AJQG874
Accelerated Reader:
UG
Level 6.2, 13 Points
Lexile measure:
950
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Julia Alvarez. (2010). How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. Algonquin Books.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Julia Alvarez. 2010. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. Algonquin Books.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Julia Alvarez, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. Algonquin Books, 2010.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Julia Alvarez. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. Algonquin Books, 2010.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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Date Added:
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Date Updated:
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      • value: Assimilation
      • value: People of Color
      • value: Banned Books
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      • value: immigrant experience
      • value: women of color
      • value: political unrest
      • value: latina literature
      • value: alternating povs
      • value: novel in stories
      • value: rafael trujillo
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      • value: 30th anniversary
      • value: immigrant voices
      • value: books about sisters
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      • value: top 10 latina authors
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      • bioText:
        Julia Alvarez left the Dominican Republic for the United States in 1960 at the age of ten. She is the author of six novels, three books of nonfiction, three collections of poetry, and eleven books for children and young adults. She has taught and mentored writers in schools and communities across America and, until her retirement in 2016, was a writer-in-residence at Middlebury College. Her work has garnered wide recognition, including a Latina Leader Award in Literature from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature, the Woman of the Year by Latina magazine, and inclusion in the New York Public Library’s program “The Hand of the Poet: Original Manuscripts by 100 Masters, from John Donne to Julia Alvarez.” In the Time of the Butterflies, with over one million copies in print, was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts for its national Big Read program, and in 2013 President Obama awarded Alvarez the National Medal of Arts in recognition of her extraordinary storytelling.
      • name: Julia Alvarez
publishDate
2010-01-12T00:00:00-05:00
isOwnedByCollections
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title
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
fullDescription
Named A Great American Novel by The Atlantic!
From the international bestselling author of In the Time of the Butterflies and Afterlife, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents  is "poignant...powerful... Beautifully captures the threshold experience of the new immigrant, where the past is not yet a memory." (The New York Times Book Review)

Don't miss Alvarez’s new novel, The Cemetery of Untold Stories, available now!
Acclaimed writer Julia Alvarez’s beloved first novel gives voice to four sisters as they grow up in two cultures. The García sisters—Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofía—and their family must flee their home in the Dominican Republic after their father’s role in an attempt to overthrow brutal dictator Rafael Trujillo is discovered. They arrive in New York City in 1960 to a life far removed from their existence in the Caribbean. In the wondrous but not always welcoming U.S.A., their parents try to hold on to their old ways as the girls try find new lives: by straightening their hair and wearing American fashions, and by forgetting their Spanish. For them, it is at once liberating and excruciating to be caught between the old world and the new. Here they tell their stories about being at home—and not at home—in America.
"Alvarez helped blaze the trail for Latina authors to break into the literary mainstream, with novels like In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents winning praise from critics and gracing best-seller lists across the Americas."—Francisco Cantú, The New York Times Book Review
"A clear-eyed look at the insecurity and yearning for a sense of belonging that are a part of the immigrant experience . . . Movingly told." —The Washington Post Book World
 
gradeLevels
      • value: Grade 5
reviews
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        June 1, 1992
        Fifteen tales vividly chronicle a Dominican family's exile in the Bronx, focusing on the four Garcia daughters' rebellion against their immigrant elders.

      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        April 3, 2006
        Alvarez's novel inches backward in time, unfolding as 15 separate but tightly linked tales of the four Garcia girls, daughters in a wealthy Dominican family who fled to the U.S. with their parents to escape the island's dictator. One central voice reads third-person narratives about the girls' experiences, acting as an axis that spools off the girls' individual voices in first-person chapters. Carla, Sandra, Yolanda and Sofia take turns describing their trials both with their Old World parents' strict ideas of proper behavior and their New World neighbors' resistance to the presence of immigrants. While the narrators (Blanca Camacho, Anne Henk, Annie Kosuch, Melanie Martinez and Noemi de la Puente) are never distinct enough for listeners to affix specific voices to characters, the book's title is illustrated perfectly by their flawless, accent-free English that switches smoothly to Spanish trills and rhythms when necessary, giving the reading both flair and authenticity. The audiobook enriches Alvarez's silvery prose and already delightful stories, making them dance even more gracefully.

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        May 1, 1991
        This rollicking, highly original first novel tells the story (in reverse chronological order) of four sisters and their family, as they become Americanized after fleeing the Dominican Republic in the 1960s. A family of privilege in the police state they leave, the Garcias experience understandable readjustment problems in the United States, particularly old world patriarch Papi. The sisters fare better but grow up conscious, like all immigrants, of living in two worlds. There is no straightforward plot; rather, vignettes (often exquisite short stories in their own right) featuring one or more of the sisters--Carle, Sandi, Yolanda, and Fifi--at various stages of growing up are strung together in a smooth, readable story. Alvarez is a gifted, evocative storyteller of promise.-- Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., Va.

        Copyright 1991 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

      • premium: True
      • source: School Library Journal
      • content:

        July 1, 1991
        YA-Mature readers will appreciate the efforts of the four Altagracia sisters to adopt American ways while maintain ing their Dominican heritage. Covering the years 1960-1989 in reverse chronol ogy, the 15 stories highlight such salient events as a nervous breakdown, prob lems with husbands and boyfriends, clashes with parents because of chang ing values, career choices, and sibling rivalry. While several adult situations are described, Alvarez's ability to show the girls' innermost thoughts will en able YA readers to empathize with their process of assimilation.-Arlene Bath gate, R. E. Lee High School, Spring field, VA

      • premium: True
      • source: School Library Journal
      • content:

        September 1, 1991
        YA- -This sensitive story of four sisters who must adjust to life in America after having to flee from the Dominican Republic is told through a series of episodes beginning in adulthood, when their lives have been shaped by U. S. mores, and moving backwards to their wealthy childhood on the island. Adapting to American life is difficult and causes embarrassment when friends meet their parents, anger as they are bullied and called "spics," and identity confusion following summer trips to the family compound in the Dominican Republic. These interconnected vignettes of family life, resilience, and love are skillfully intertwined and offer young adults a perspective on immigration and families as well as a look at America through Hispanic eyes. This unique coming-of-age tale is a feast of stories that will enchant and captivate readers.- Pam Spencer, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA

      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        January 1, 1991
        The chronicle of a family in exile that is forced to find a new identity in a new land, these 15 short tales, grouped into three sections, form a rich, novel-like mosaic. Alvarez, whose first fiction this is, has an ear for the dialogue of non-natives, and the strong flavors of Dominican syntax and cultural values permeate these pages. Many parallels may be drawn between these stories and Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. Central to both are young, first generation American females in rebellion against their immigrant elders, and in both books the stories pile up with layers of multiple points of view and overlapping experiences, building to a sense of family myths in the making. The four Garcia daughters, whom we meet as adults but then re-encounter as children as the narrative flows backward in time, are accustomed to a prestigious perch in Spanish Caribbean society. But political upheavals force Papi and Mami to seek refuge in a more modest way of life in the Bronx, and their little girls become transplants who thrive and desire a far bigger embrace of this new world than the elder Garcias can contemplate or accept. This is an account of parallel odysseys, as each of the four daughters adapts in her own way, and a large part of Alvarez's Gar cia's accomplishment is the complexity with which these vivid characters are rendered.

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shortDescription
Named A Great American Novel by The Atlantic!
From the international bestselling author of In the Time of the Butterflies and Afterlife, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents  is "poignant...powerful... Beautifully captures the threshold experience of the new immigrant, where the past is not yet a memory." (The New York Times Book Review)

Don't miss Alvarez’s new novel, The Cemetery of Untold Stories, available now!
Acclaimed writer Julia Alvarez’s beloved first novel gives voice to four sisters as they grow up in two cultures. The García sisters—Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofía—and their family must flee their home in the Dominican Republic after their father’s role in an attempt to overthrow brutal dictator Rafael Trujillo is discovered. They arrive in New York City in 1960 to a...
sortTitle
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
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950
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publisher
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