What Makes Judith Ortiz Cofer a good writer of Adolescent Literature

Judith Ortiz Cofer is a good writer of adolescent literature because she takes from her own experiences as a child. Remembering her experiences and how she and her peers behaved she is able to add to those childhood similarities and develop them into something entirely new (An Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio). The similarities that we see developing from her childhood and jumping onto the pages of this collection of stories are things like:

Spending her childhood in Puerto Rico ( of the year every year)
Spending her childhood in Patterson, New Jersey (the other of the year every year)
Her grandfather was a mesa blanca espiritista (we see this come through specifically in the chapter, Bad Influence
Church was a significant part of her childhood (seen in many of the chapters but perhaps the strongest in Arturos Flight and Abuela invents the Zero
She has had a daughter with whom she dealt with teen issues.

If you enjoyed An Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio you may also like other adolescent literature such as:

True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle Avi
Am I Blue? Coming out of the Silence Marion Dane Bower
The Chocolate War Robert Comier
hildren of the River Linda Crew
Annie On My Mind Nancy Gardner
Going Where I Am Coming From Anne Mazur
The Meaning of Consuelo Judith Ortiz Cofer