Title: Esperanza Rising Author: Pam Munoz Ryan Cover
Illustrator: Joe Cepeda
About The Book:
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2001 ALA Top Ten Best
Books for Young Adults |
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Pura
Belpré Award which honors Latino authors whose
work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience |
Esperanza Ortega
has everything – she’s from an affluent family, beautiful and charming in the
bountiful region of Aguascalientes,
Mexico. However, near her thirteenth
birthday, tragedy befalls the family and Esperanza’s father is killed. This event forces Esperanza and her mother
to flee to the United States and they attempt to find work in the Mexican labor
camps in California. Esperanza, who
doesn’t even know how to sweep a floor, learns how to put her shoulder to the
wheel and embrace hard work when her mother falls ill with Valley Fever. In the end, Esperanza triumphs.
About The
Author:
Pam Munoz Ryan has
written over twenty-five books for young people, including Esperanza Rising (a
Pura Belpre’ Award Winner) and Riding Freedom (Texas Bluebonnet Award Nominee)
and When Marian Sang (an ALA Honor Book).
Ms. Ryan received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from San Diego
State University and began life as a teacher, then migrated to administration
before becoming a full-time writer. She
currently lives in San Diego County with her husband and four children. For more information, you can visit her
website by clicking here.
About The
Illustrator:
Joe Cepeda is an
accomplished artist who first went to college to study engineering. He later returned and concentrated his
studies on art. He admonishes children
who want to become illustrators to read and study math. Mr. Cepeda has done many magazine
illustrations in addition to children’s books.
For more information about this author and his books, click here.
Before Reading
Activity:
Discuss what
riches a family in Mexico would have – how El Rancho de las Rosas must have
looked and how many people the family would have employed and in what
capacity. Compare the Ortega ranch to
an American plantation. This activity
promotes critical thinking and rationalization.
After Reading
Activity:
Organize the
students into groups and facilitate discussions regarding the Mexican proverbs
at the beginning of the book and how they relate to the story:
"He who falls today may rise tomorrow."
"The rich person is richer when he becomes poor,
than the poor person
when he becomes rich."
Use the following
Internet sites for additional searching:
Spanish proverbs
(Spanish and English)*:
http://spanish.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://members.aol.com/spanishpronto/spanishsayings.html
http://cogweb.english.ucsb.edu/Discourse/Proverbs/English-Spanish.html
http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Discourse/Proverbs/Spanish.html
http://www.lingolex.com/refranes.htm
*Proverb websites taken from Pam Munoz Ryan’s website.
Allow students
time outside of the library to continue their research and ask for a group
leader to report findings the next class meeting. This activity promotes critical thinking, teamwork, cooperative
learning and computer research skills.