1. Santiago discuses the social hierarchy at the High School for the Performing Arts. What drives this hierarchy? Where does Esmeralda fit into it? How is this hierarchy representative of or different than the social hierarchy at her junior high? At other American high schools?

2. How do Esmeralda's feelings about her father develop and change throughout the book?

3. Young Esmeralda's picture of mainstream American culture is that portrayed in the Archie comic books. How accurate is this view? Can American culture be portrayed monolithically?

4. How might life have been different for the family if Papi had moved to Brooklyn with them?

5. Mami worries that Esmeralda will become "Americanized." Does Esmeralda become Americanized? In which ways does she change and in which ways does she keep attitudes that are Puerto Rican?

6. To what extent are Esmeralda's experiences as an immigrant in the U.S. uniquely hers...