Esperanza Rising has won a Pura Belpre Award. The author, Pam Munoz Ryan, captures the life of Esperanza in this cultural book. Esperanza is a little girl who grew up in Mexico in the 1920's on Rancho de las Rosas. It is a vineyard that her family owns and works. It takes place at a time when Mexico is recovering from the revolution that happened 10 years earlier. Esperanza's birthday happens at a time when there is a celebration, but on her 13th birthday her father is murdered. Everything seems to go down hill from there. To escape ruthless uncles her family moves to California to work and Esperanza no longer feels special. She was use to being treated like a princess and having servants do things for her. Now Esperanza has to help her family regain back some stability. The ideas and thoughts of Esperanza are genuine and heart warming, as well as heartbreaking at times. The author did an excellent job of bringing the emotions across in this book. It is one of my favorites and a popular read in my class. Our 4th grade teachers read it in their class, but when they come to my class I still have lots of children check it out from my classroom library.
Munoz, Pam (2000). Esperanza Rising. New York: Scholastic Publishing.
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