39. Esperanza Rising

Esperanza Rising
By Pam Muñzo Ryan
Narrated by Trini Alvarado
Scholastic, 2000

Genre
Historical Fiction

Awards

• Jane Addams Children's Book Awards for Book for Older Children (2000)
• Publisher's Weekly: Best Book (2000)
• Publisher's Weekly Starred Review (2000)
• Pura Belpré Award: Narrative (2002)

Review
Esperanza's life is about to change.  She has always been the daughter of a wealthy father who owned a lot of land on his Mexican ranch; she was used to having servants, pretty dresses, and porcelain dolls.  But when her father is killed, she and her mother are forced to run to the US to escape her corrupt uncles who now own the farm.  Here, Esperanza learns to work and to appreciate life around her for what it is, not what she has.  This is a beautiful story of a girl coming to terms with who she is and adjusting to new circumstances, doing what she must do in the face of adversity.  This story is set during the Mexican Repatriation in the US and not long after the Mexican Revolution.  A powerful story that speaks to readers about coming to terms with hardships beyond personal control and rising above them.

Opinion
This is a great story and can be inspiring to readers, especially those who can identify with the main characters due to heritage, personal loss, or other similarities.  Esperanza is a wonderful heroine that girls can look up to as a strong female role model.  I think this book is good for more advanced readers in later elementary school or the average middle school reader.

Ideas
Great for many different kinds of displays: historical fiction, Mexican-American history, multicultural history, etc.  This book would also be good for a unit on multicultural literature.

26. Dying to Cross

Dying to Cross
By Jorge Ramos
HarperCollins Publishers, 2006
Narrated by Jonathan Davis

Genre
Non-fiction

Awards
None Known

Review
Written by Jorge Ramos, a celebrated and popular Mexican journalist, this book tells the tragic story of over 70 immigrants from Mexico and various Central American countries who attempted to cross the Mexican-American border illegally on May 13, 2003.  These desperate people traveled a variety of ways and paid a few thousand dollars each to get from their homes to safe houses in Harlingen, TX, from which they were told they would be delivered to Huston, TX.  Based on the accounts of various immigrants, it seems the travelers were told different things by their coyotes (the people paid to bring them across the border) about what their accommodations and traveling methods would be, but in reality, they all ended up in a truck trailer for the last leg of their journey from Harlingen to Huston.  Although this truck had a refrigeration unit, the driver never turned it on, causing 17 people to die in the truck and 2 more later in the hospital.  Ramos' story tells about some of the lives of the immigrants before the tragedy and covers part of the trials after many coyotes, including the suspected ring-leader, were arrested.

Opinion
This was an extremely repetitive book and the author covered almost the entire story in the first chapter.  He reiterates facts like the temperature or that a young boy died in the truck and harps on "if only" ideas.  He briefly touches on the idea that both the countries Mexico and America are partially responsible for this tragedy due to poor immigration policy despite stating at the beginning of his book that he was simply trying to give the accounts of some of the surviving immigrants and some of those who died, not trying to make a political statement or legal overview.  This is a poorly written book, though the story it tells is heartbreaking and deserves to be told in a better way.

Ideas
I am not familiar with techniques used in journalism, but I feel like this may be an example of a journalist outreaching the bounds of what he is used to.   This could be used in a journalism or literature class to show how not to write an account of events.  It could also be used to discuss with tweens the problems that illegal immigration create for those attempting to travel in such a fashion, because although it is a poorly written book, it is a book that, in terms of reading level, would be appropriate for tweens to read.