Esperanza Rising
Book Review:
Pam Muñoz Ryan begins her classic children's novel with a quotation:
"He who falls today may rise tomorrow." This is a significant
foreshadowing of the troubles Ryan's main character Esperanza -- which
means "hope" in Spanish -- will face throughout the book.
When bandits kill Esperanza's father, a prominent landowner in 1920's
Mexico, she and her mother are left penniless and forced to become migrant
workers in California. They are not there long when her mother becomes
very sick. Her family's welfare now resting on her shoulders, Esperanza
finds amazing reserves of strength to not only survive but to work towards
reuniting her and her mother with their grandmother.
In a time of current economic hardships, young readers will find much
to identify with in Esperanza and her hard working friends. Educators
will appreciate not only a unique perspective on the Depression but
also an introduction to labor and migrant worker rights.
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