Never judge a book by its cover—even if it has a little girl flying in the wind. I will confess that I was not excited to read this book because of both the title and cover. I’ve read an article before about how teachers have this assumption that girls will read books about boys, but not vice versa. I think to some extent, this is true; at least it is for me. However, I was pleasantly surprised as this book deals with an engaging plot and relevant issues.
Esperanza Rising is a coming of age story about Esperanza, a girl living in a politically turbulent Mexico. Her father is murdered early in the novel and the rest of the novel has to deal with gender issues about how the government has rendered women helpless and how Esperanza’s mother is being pressured to marry a corrupt politician. In the end, the book also references the race issue with migrant workers as the family moves to California to work on farms.
In teaching this novel, it might be hard to get boys in the classroom fully on board, but I think this text is an important one as it deals with important gender and race issues. So, although it might be difficult to teach, teachers will somehow just have to make it work :)
Ryan, Pam Munoz. Esperanza Rising. New York: Scholastic, 2000
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