Like most of Ortiz Cofer's work, An Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio has been met with both critical and popular success. The collection was awarded the Horn Book Farfare Award and the Hungry Mind Book of Distinction award, as well as listings with Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers and Best Books for Young Adults. Hazel Rochman, in her review for Booklist, writes, "The contemporary teenage voices are candid, funny, weary, and irreverent in these stories about immigrant kids caught between their Puerto Rican families and the pull and push of the American dream." In her review for Horn Book Nancy Vasilakis agrees, writing, "The Caribbean flavor of the tales gives them their color and freshness, but the narratives have universal resonance in the vitality, the brashness, the self-centered hopefulness and the angst expressed by the teens."

Sensitivity to voice has been the cornerstone...