Product Description

Notable Children?s Books in Paperback

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1558 in Books
• Brand: Scholastic
• Published on: 2002-06-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Features

• Made with the Best Quality Material with your child in mind.
• Top Quality Children's Item.

From Publishers Weekly
"With a hint of magical realism, this robust novel set in 1930 captures a Mexican girl's fall from riches and her immigration to California," said PW in our Best Books citation. Ages 8-12. (June)
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9-Ryan uses the experiences of her own Mexican grandmother as the basis for this compelling story of immigration and assimilation, not only to a new country but also into a different social class. Esperanza's expectation that her 13th birthday will be celebrated with all the material pleasures and folk elements of her previous years is shattered when her father is murdered by bandits. His powerful stepbrothers then hold her mother as a social and economic hostage, wanting to force her remarriage to one of them, and go so far as to burn down the family home. Esperanza's mother then decides to join the cook and gardener and their son as they move to the United States and work in California's agricultural industry. They embark on a new way of life, away from the uncles, and Esperanza unwillingly enters a world where she is no longer a princess but a worker. Set against the multiethnic, labor-organizing era of the Depression, the story of Esperanza remaking herself is satisfyingly complete, including dire illness and a difficult romance. Except for the evil uncles, all of the characters are rounded, their motives genuine, with class issues honestly portrayed. Easy to booktalk, useful in classroom discussions, and accessible as pleasure reading, this well-written novel belongs in all collections.
Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Esperanza Ortega adores her family's beautiful El Rancho de las Rosas. Like her father, she loves the land, the grapes, the bird songs, even the servants, all part of her privileged life. But her contentment dissolves with her father's brutal murder. Forced to flee, 14-year-old Esperanza and her mother escape Mexico to a migrant camp in California with nothing more than the goodwill of their former servants. Trini Alvarado gives the lyrical text a sensitive reading, faithfully portraying Esperanza's transformation from a pampered, self-important rich girl to a generous and self-aware young woman. The richness of Alvarado's Spanish infuses the reading, and the text affords her an opportunity to display her beautiful singing voice, as well. Rich in history and culture, this novel is all the more successful in the audio format. T.B. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Beautifully written and moving
Based on her grandmother's experiences as an immigrant and a migrant worker in the 1930's. Ryan has written a beautiful and sensitive book about a young girl who is forced to flee her home and her sheltered life in Mexico to becme a migrant worker in the US.

Highly recommended!

I Liked It
"Esperanza Rising," a great book to read over the summer.This book is about a young girl whos life goes way down hill but at the end her life changes a bit but she's always with the people she loves most. If you don't like it at first give it a chance, that's what I did and I liked it alot. The book requires you imagining to be Esperanza. At the end think about what you read. It's a great book to think about at the end and see if you love it because your brain will do a little review and you will like it.

Singley, 5th grader

Enlightening
We just recently listened to the the book Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan on. cd It has been awhile to have a book touch me and make me think like this book did. This book is based upon the stories a grandmother told her granddaughter, the author. The grandmother is Esperanza. Esperanza and her recently widowed mother make the difficult decision to leave Mexico, where they lived the lives of royalty to come to America, the land of the free. They leave with their servants who are now their equals and Esperanza learns the true meaning of "The rich take care of the rich, the poor take care of the poor". She sees firsthand the poorest of the poor giving away their food and help to those in even more need than they themselves face, and later is both giver and taker of doing just that.
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This is the first book I have read/listened to that tells the story of the Mexican Emigrants and the hardships they faced after coming to America, where "everybody" has a chance at becoming rich. It tells how they were looked down upon because they were brown skinned and therefore must be dumb, even if in Mexico, they had had a better education and/or training than the white Americans. Reduced to rags and poor poverty like conditions, they struggled to feed their families. American born Mexicans were deported to Mexico because of setting up strikes and trying to make things better for everybody. Mexicans, who were reduced to digging and laying tracks for the railroad, even if they knew the mechanics of how the engines work and how to fix them. This is one of those subjects I have never before heard as it was not taught in the schools I attended, whether for geographical reasons (Wisconsin), or because if it isn't in the books, it didn't happen or for whatever reason.
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My husband's great grandparents brought their family to America from Mexico, when his grandpa was a young boy. My husband's great grandfather came here to work as a railroad worker. As his grandfather has passed away, I don't know that we will ever hear what really happened when they came to America, but I can only pray that they did not face the prejudices that the people did in Esperanza Rising. I pray that whatever happened to my husband's family when they came here, that they too, like Esperanza rose above it and became stronger people because of it, not hardened and calloused, but better people because of their circumstances.