PARTLY CLOUDY, Poems of Love and Longing

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Soto, Gary. PARTLY CLOUDY, Poems of Love and Longing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2009. ISBN 978054757737.


PLOT SUMMARY
Partly Cloudy, Poems of Love and Longing by Gary Soto is the perfect read for teens. The novel is about the chaotic love lives of teenagers. Gary Soto divided this novel into two parts. The first part is about teenage girls’ perspective of love and the second part is about teenage boys’ perspective. From the downward dips of a breakup to the upward twist of the first kiss! Readers will be able to experience what it feels like to be on a poetic love rollercoaster!


CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Partly Cloudy will connect with teens all over the world! This is not just another boring poetry read. Once readers open this book, they won’t be able to close it! Gary Soto does a great job revealing love in both genders’ perspectives. Many readers will find themselves laughing, smiling, and crying while reading this book.

Although Gary Soto is an award winning Hispanic author, there were not many cultural makers that stood out in this book. The description of some of the teens hairstyles reveals a portion of their culture. However, as I kept digging and rereading I realized that cultural markers does not have to involve just race and ethnicity of the author. I found that Soto highlighted the love experience for both teen girls and boys in his book. Gender plays a major role in our culture today. Gary Soto creatively integrates both perspectives of love in this short poetic read. In the first part of the book titled, “A Girl’s Tears, Her Songs” readers will be able to understand that females express more emotion than males when it comes to love. In contrast, the second part of this book “ A Boy’s Body, his words”, reveals to readers that males are more physical when it comes to love.


REVIEW EXCERPTSBooklist (February 15, 2009 (Vol. 105, No. 12))
“Young teens will enjoy the “love sick” puns and the metaphors, lyrical and sad, that show there is poetry in the way they speak.”

Horn Book Guide starred (July, 2009)
“...the free-verse poems all ring true: appropriately corny, rich with image, accessible and believable. The simple, open design encourages browsing, and readers flipping through are bound to find the right words when they need them.”


Connections

More culturally authentic books by Gary Soto!

Soto, G. (2006). Buried onions. Orlando, Fla: Harcourt. ISBN: 0152062653
Soto, G. (2006). Petty crimes. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc.ISBN: 0152054375
Soto, G. (2012). Facts of life: Selected stories. ISBN: 0547577346