Esperanza Rising

Ryan, P. M. (2000). Esperanza rising.  New York: Scholastic.

 Book Summary

Esperanza was a young girl of wealth living in a ranch in Mexico, with her loving mother and father. Tragedy strikes when her father is killed by bandits and her cruel uncles take over the ranch. When one tries to force her mother into marrying him, Esperanza and her mother escape with some of the family’s old servants to America. Unfortunately, they have to leave Esperanza’s grandmother behind. When they reach America, they become migrant workers living on a large working farm in California. As a girl of wealth, Esperanza is not prepared for the hard work of the farm, or even just keeping a house on her own. Her mother, while strong, also suffers from health problems because of the severe dust storms. Esperanza grows as she lives through these difficult times and becomes stronger as she supports her mother and saves to bring her grandmother to live with them in America. 

Impressions

Ryan presents a compelling historical novel that focuses on the experiences of Mexicans coming to America. While it’s a positive novel, there’s plenty of hardship and growth. Although it’s focused on a Mexican-American experience, the story could relate to any immigrant. It can also relate to young girls who are growing out of childhood into adolescence. Esperanza handles the trials very well for a young girl who went from a life of luxury to one of struggles and difficulty. In the midst of these trials, she is also getting older and becoming a young woman; she’s having to deal with the emotions that come with that life change as well as her forced life change. Ryan presents several adult struggles and while Esperanza reacts true to her character and age, which keeps the book applicable to its younger readers.

Professional Review

“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.”

Goldsmith, F. (2000, October 1). School Library Journal

Library Uses

This would be a great book for use in a Latin celebration program or even a program concerning the history of migrant workers in America. If the library has a book club for younger readers, this would lead to a good discussion about the history of racial tension in America and the struggles of field workers.

When You Reach Me

Stead, R. (2009). When you reach me. New York: Random House.

Book Summary

When You Reach Me is about Miranda, a young girl living in New York in the seventies. Her favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time, so when she receives a note that seems like it is from the future, it scares her but she believes that it could be true. More notes appear, with requests that match what is happening in her life. Her mother is going to go on a game show, Miranda starts working in a sandwich shop, her best friend stops speaking to her, and Miranda has several encounters with a strange, laughing man on her street. Aspects of the notes coincide with some of these experiences, unsettling Miranda. However, she decides to follow the notes’ instructions and chronicle her experiences.  

Impressions

Anyone who read A Wrinkle in Time as a child would love this book. There’s the same sense of magic from that book in this new story by Stead. There’s also a sense of history because the author details living in New York as a child and the prejudices of the seventies. Although the novel contains time travel, it is not focused on science fiction; the novel is really more about a young girl growing up in New York and struggling with what it means to grow up. Miranda’s best friend is a young boy in her building and the two of them grow apart at the beginning of the book. This is upsetting to Miranda because she doesn’t want to lose her best friend. There’s also another subplot concerning one of Miranda’s frenemies, a young black girl, who shows the prejudices still occurring in the city. For readers, this is for elementary readers but is also a book that would appeal to adults because of the author’s reminiscing of her own childhood.

Professional Review

 “Sixth-grader Miranda lives in 1978 New York City with her mother, and her life compass is Madeleine L’Engles "A Wrinkle in Time". When she receives a series of enigmatic notes that claim to want to save her life, she comes to believe that they are from someone who knows the future. Miranda spends considerable time observing a raving vagrant who her mother calls the laughing man and trying to find the connection between the notes and her everyday life. Discerning readers will realize the ties between Miranda’s mystery and L’Engles plot, but will enjoy hints of fantasy and descriptions of middle school dynamics. Steads novel is as much about character as story. Miranda’s voice rings true with its faltering attempts at maturity and observation. The story builds slowly, emerging naturally from a sturdy premise. As Miranda reminisces, the time sequencing is somewhat challenging, but in an intriguing way. The setting is consistently strong. The stores and even the streetsin Mirandas neighborhood act as physical entities and impact the plot in tangible ways. This unusual, thought-provoking mystery will appeal to several types of readers."

Augusta, C. (2009, July 1). School Library Journal.

                                                                                       

Library Uses

I would use this in a book club any day. When You Reach Me won the Newbery Award in 2010. The plot and characters of this story would provide lots of good group discussions concerning growing up, prejudice, the likelihood of time travel, and what you would do if you could time travel.

Moon Over Manifest

Vanderpool, C. (2010). Moon over Manifest. New York: Delacorte Press.

Book Summary

Moon Over Manifest is the story of a young train jumper, Abilene. While she’s spent her life travelling the country with her father, this summer he’s sent her to live in the small town of Manifest, Kansas. Abilene makes it her mission to discover why this town means so much to her father and what he was like when he was a young boy around her age. In doing this, she discovers a box of old letters that tell the tales of Jinx and Ned, two boys in Manifest. In a parallel storyline, Abilene and her friends search for a local spy, the “Rattler,” while Ned and Jinx get into their own scrapes in the past. As Abilene discovers more and more about the stories of Ned and Jinx, she learns the truth of the people of Manifest and her own father.

Impressions

This book is a good example of an engaging historical fiction novel for elementary school readers. Abilene is a precocious but loveable character. As the story develops and more details come to light concerning Manifest’s past, the reader discovers secrets alongside Abilene. The characters in the down are fully developed and offer insights to what it was like to live in the U.S.A. during Prohibition and World War I. I listened to this book as an audiobook and the narrator was an appropriate age to be reading the story of a young girl. The use of accents and local slang was well done and brought the reader into a small southern town as they listened.  

Professional Review

Parked for the summer of 1936 in the small town of Manifest, Kansas, twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker goes looking for clues to her father's past and ends up finding her own future. In contrast to the many secrets and mysteries Abilene discovers—some revolving around letters she finds from 1918, others centered on present-day Manifest—she herself is an endearingly transparent character, and narrator Lamia channels her to perfection. Lamia differentiates characters with subtlety and skill, while any confusion arising from the time shift is eliminated by switching to different (equally engaging) narrators for the chapters set in 1918. A commendable audiobook production of Vanderpool's multi-layered, openhearted Newbery Medal winner.

Parravano, M. V. (2011, November 1). The Horn Book.

Library Uses

This would be a great book club book. It won the Newbery Award in 2011. In addition to book clubs, I’d include this on readers’ advisory lists for historical fiction and audiobooks for families. Although Abilene is a young girl, the inclusion of Jinx and Ned (and Abilene’s own adventurous nature), makes this a book that would appeal to both boys and girls.

A Ball for Daisy

Raschka, C. (2011). A ball for Daisy. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books.

Book Summary

A Ball for Daisy is a picture book without words. Despite not having text, it tells the simple story of a dog, Daisy, and her ball. The images depict the pure happiness the dog has with her ball as she plays inside and at the park with her owner. Then, sadly, the ball deflates when another dog plays with it too roughly. Daisy deflates as well. She’s unhappy without her ball to play with. Then when she returns to the park, the other dog brings another ball to replace the old one. The two play and happiness returns.

Impressions

I love picture books that can tell a great story without words. Raschka’s drawings depict all Daisy’s emotions so clearly. She goes from ecstatic to despondent with just a few different strokes.  A Ball for Daisy was the 2012 Caldecott Medal Winner and he was a deserving winner. This books is a good resource for young readers because despite the fact that there are no words, it opens a door for their imagination. They have to use their own vocabulary to explain what they see on the page. Although they aren’t reading, they are using language and practicing how to express emotions in words.

Professional Review

“A little dog and her big ball map an inner life rich in heights of joy and depths of sorrow.

Sticking strictly to pictures—using neutral washes and just a few colors applied in broad, rumpled brushstrokes—Raschka follows floppy-eared Daisy and her large red ball on a walk to the park and a happy chase. Then disaster strikes, when a rougher dog horns in and pops the ball. Even very young viewers will feel Daisy’s pain as she passes in stages through incomprehension, dismay and anger to, at last, a bone-deep sadness that is brilliantly evoked by successive views of the droopy dog slowly sinking into a sofa’s cushions. Doggy delight rekindles, however, when another visit to the park finds the offending pooch and its owner waiting…with a new, blue ball! The final scene of Daisy and ball snuggled together on the sofa positively radiates canine content.

Rarely, perhaps never, has so steep an emotional arc been drawn with such utter, winning simplicity. “

Kirkus Review. November 16^th, 2011.

Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/chris-raschka/ball-for-daisy/?gclid=CLnXwaSsh74CFaw-MgoduG4A_w

Library Uses

This is a great book for younger patrons. They can use their imagination to add to the story, since there are no words limiting the storyline.  For smaller programs focused on literacy, this is a good one for having children practice using their own words to express a story. Our library currently hosts a “Read to a Dog” program where kids who are struggling readers can come read to a trained dog, who obviously won’t be correcting their words and embarrassing them. This book would be a fun introductory book to have kids use for this program so they can get used to reading to the dog without getting stressed over sounding out the correct words.

Flotsam

Wiesner, D. (2006). Flotsam. New York: Clarion Books.

Book Summary

Wiesner’s Flotsam is a wordless picture book that travels the world. A young boy on the beach comes across an underwater camera with a roll of film inside. When these photos are developed, he discovered a hidden world under the sea, where octopuses read books and lounge on couches. Turtles have cities of shells on their backs, and aliens converse with seahorses. At the end of this fantastical pile of photos, there’s a photo of a young girl, holding another photo. Within that photo is another child holding a photo, and so on and so forth. With the help of a microscope, the boy looks through all the other photos to find the first photo of a boy on a beach. Then he takes his own photo with a photo and sends the camera back out to sea.

Impressions

Wiesner creates a magical under the sea world with his illustrations. The entire premise of the story, with the camera capturing the sea’s secrets and young children sharing them with each other all over the world, is also completely magical. I love that this story does not include words because the reader is sharing the experience with the boy who finds the camera. He isn’t speaking to anyone about what he has found; he is just looking, astonished, through the photos. This is a great story for early readers, who can describe what is happening on each page. It’s a fun experience to see what Wiesner imagines happens under the sea and readers can continue with their own imagination to what else could be happening.

Professional Review

“A wave deposits an old-fashioned contraption at the feet of an inquisitive young beachcomber. It’s a Melville underwater camera, and the excited boy quickly develops the film he finds inside. The photos are amazing: a windup fish, with intricate gears and screwed-on panels, appears in a school with its living counterparts; a fully inflated puffer, outfitted as a hot-air balloon, sails above the water; miniature green aliens kowtow to dour-faced sea horses; and more. The last print depicts a girl, holding a photo of a boy, and so on. As the images become smaller, the protagonist views them through his magnifying glass and then his microscope. The chain of children continues back through time, ending with a sepia image of a turn-of-the-20th-century boy waving from a beach. After photographing himself holding the print, the youngster tosses the camera back into the ocean, where it makes its way to its next recipient. This wordless book’s vivid watercolor paintings have a crisp realism that anchors the elements of fantasy. Shifting perspectives, from close-ups to landscape views, and a layout incorporating broad spreads and boxed sequences, add drama and motion to the storytelling and echo the photographic theme. Filled with inventive details and delightful twists, each snapshot is a tale waiting to be told. Pair this visual adventure with Wiesner’s other works, Chris Van Allsburg’s titles, or Barbara Lehman’s "The Red Book" (Houghton, 2004) for a mind-bending journey of imagination."

Fleishhacker, J. (2006). School Library Journal.

Library Uses

This book would be fantastic to use in an ocean-themed program. While not scientifically accurate, there is still so much that occurs in our oceans that scientists are still discovering.  Imagination aides in discovery, as marine biologists search for life and how that life lives in our oceans.  Wiesner’s book definitely promotes imagination.

It would also be fun to use this book in a photography program. Wiesner lays out his images as photographs so some of the pages could be used to discussed layout and framing.