The Education of Margot Sanchez

The main character (Margot Sanchez) is a fifteen-year-old Puerto Rican girl living in the Bronx. She struggles to fit in at her prep school and in order to do so, charges $600 to her Papi’s credit card for a shopping spree to fit in with the popular girls that she sees as her friends. As punishment, she is forced to work off her debt in her father’s grocery store over the summer. Margot deals with issues involving her brother’s drug addiction and her father’s infidelity. She begins to see how life actually is for those outside of Somerset Prep.

As a college reader, I found Margot’s character annoying as she complains about all of the punishment that she goes through. At the same time though, I feel that this would be very relatable to students in a secondary classroom. Margot wears a mask in order to make friends at her school even though that’s not who she truly is. This is a struggle that many students (and even some adults) face on a daily basis. A character who deals with the same issues that they face, even in a very different setting like the Bronx, is something that students could easily relate to.

Students could connect this book to their lives and compare their experiences to Margot’s. The only problem with having them do this is that because they are still in high school, they may not have had enough time to truly reflect and grow from those experiences yet. This could also be used as a summer reading assignment that would allow students to compare how they spend their summers to how Margot spends hers and how she changes over the course of the story.

There are obstacles including drug abuse, sex, underage drinking, and overall adolescent rebellion. Some parents may say that Margot could set a bad example for their children because of her lack of judgment.

While this book is a unique coming of age story that uses aspects of race, poverty, and love, I’m not sold on using it as part of my literature curriculum. While it would be relatable to some students, I’m just not sure it’s better than other classic coming of age stories such as To Kill a Mockingbird or The Catcher in the Rye. I would definitely recommend it though for students that are looking for a coming of age story that is told from a different point of view.