num_pages: 224
description: Dad believed people were like money. You could be a thousand-dollar person or a hundred-dollar person – even a ten-, five-, or one-dollar person. Below that, everybody was just nickels and dimes. To my dad, we were pennies.Fourteen-year old Manny Hernandez wants to be more than just a penny. He wants to be a vato firme, the kind of guy people respect. But that's not easy when your father is abusive, your brother can't hold a job, and your mother scrubs the house as if she can wash her troubles away.In Manny's neighborhood, the way to get respect is to be in a gang. But Manny's not sure that joining a gang is the solution. Because, after all, it's his life – and he wants to be the one to decide what happens to it.
language: English
title: Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida
titlecomplete: Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida
genres: Cultural, Teen, Young Adult, Novels, Family, School, Middle Grade, Coming Of Age, Fiction, Realistic Fiction
ratings_count: 2058
awards: awardedAt: 820483200000
name: National Book Award
category: Young People's Literature, awardedAt: 820483200000
name: Américas Award, awardedAt: 883641600000
name: Pura Belpré Award
category: Narrative
publisher: HarperCollins Espanol