Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6277 in Books
• Brand: SCHOLASTIC BOOKS (TRADE)
• Published on: 2002-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 262 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780439120425
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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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 Booklist
Gr. 5-8. Moving from a Mexican ranch to the company labor camps of California, Ryan's lyrical novel manages the contradictory: a story of migration and movement deeply rooted in the earth. When 14-year-old Esperanza's father is killed, she and her mother must emigrate to the U.S., where a family of former ranch workers has helped them find jobs in the agricultural labor camps. Coming from such privilege, Esperanza is ill prepared for the hard work and difficult conditions she now faces. She quickly learns household chores, though, and when her mother falls ill, she works packing produce until she makes enough money to bring her beloved abuelita to the U.S.. Set during the Great Depression, the story weaves cultural, economic, and political unrest into Esperanza's poignant tale of growing up: she witnesses strikes, government sweeps, and deep injustice while finding strength and love in her family and romance with a childhood friend. The symbolism is heavy-handed, as when Esperanza ominously pricks her finger on a rose thorne just before her father is killed. But Ryan writes movingly in clear, poetic language that children will sink into, and the books offers excellent opportunities for discussion and curriculum support. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

This is a story that needs to be told
Pam Munoz Ryan's ancestors lived this story, and she has done a great service to write it with such an authentic voice. She has presented a fictionalized account of her own grandmother's fall from wealth and privilege in the aftermath of the revolution in Mexico as she immigrated to the United States to work in a Mexican farm labor camp during the Great Depression. Esperanza, the young protagonist, experiences loss, poverty, separation, prejudice, humiliation and fear on the road to her ultimate rise from the ashes in the manner of the mythical phoenix. Ryan does an excellent job of presenting the dilemma and danger of early attempts to improve the working conditions of the laborer during this period. She points out in the author's notes the grave injustices incurred by the Mexican Deportation Act, which exceeded relocations of the Japanese-Americans during the 2nd World War and of the Native Americans of the previous century. Many of these issues of prejudice and injustice persist today. Adults who enjoy this wonderful children's book should be sure to read "Rain of Gold," by Villasenor.

Cross the River With Esperanza!
There are many books and movies out there about young people and their families as they struggle to survive in Mexico and then in California when they decide to cast their lot with the American Dream...Esperanza has everything she could ever want or need on her father's El Rancho de las Rosas near Aguascalientes, Mexico, when he is killed by bandits in 1924. Esperanza and her mother must flee their ranch and her evil uncles, with the help of their loyal servants. She loses every privelege she had when she crosses the river to Southern California, where she must confront her own issues of classism and work to save her mother's life. Very exciting book! The friendship between Miguel. the son of her family's servants, helps Esperanza learn that they are equals in their newly adopted country. The author tells us that this is a fictionalized account of how her real abuelita came to the United States, which makes the story even more enjoyable. Can't wait to have my students read this book!

To the challenge
Winner of the 2001 Pura Belpre Award, "Esperanza Rising" tracts the rising/falling fortunes of young Esperanza Ortega. Forced to flee her father's grand estate in Mexico with her mother, the two make a perilous journey to America and become migrant farm workers in California. The book is a modified, "Little Princess", with a far more realistic and satisfying ending. Characters are presented here with great delicacy. Esperanza herself must sort out her own previous prejudices, while learning to live as, in her mind, a peasant. Children reading this will fully grasp everything that Esperanza has lost while truly appreciating the Mexican proverb Ryan has placed at the book's beginning: "The rich person is richer when he becomes poor, than the poor person when he becomes rich".

Though I appreciate much of what the book says, I had my own personal problems with the presentation. The strikers are presented as alternately foolhardy and violent. They are lead by a girl, Marta, who is introduced by teasing Esperanza for being once so rich, now so low. These strikers are never joined by any of the main characters in this book, save Marta. In the Author's Note, Ryan explains that strikers fought for better living conditions and were sometimes shipped back to Mexico without any justification on the officials' part. In some cases the strikers lost. "In other instances, the strong voices of many people changed some of the pitiful conditions". Yet we do not see any evidence of this in the book. Instead, the reader is left with the very clear feeling that it is easier to be a scab like Esperanza's friend Miguel rather than risk everything for the good of others. I know it is not the author's intent to present this point of view, but this is unfortunately the lesson learned. After all, in a section where Esperanza fights with Miguel in a field about the hopelessness of their situation, Miguel argues that, "everything will work out". Esperanza reacts violently, saying that this way of thinking is not productive. The obvious conclusion being drawn is that Miguel should do something about his situation. Quoth Miguel, " `You are beginning to sound like the strikers, Esperanza', said Miguel coldly. `There is more than one way to get what you want in this country'." Maybe so, Miguel. But that particular way helped improve the lives of countless Latin American immigrants in America. It's just a pity Ryan fails to acknowledge this fact in her story.