I was interested in this book back during the Spring '11 semester in my Language and learning class. The novel tells the story of the author when he was a little boy, immigrating from Mexico to California and working and living in a migrant camp. He and his family traveled a lot, to wherever the produce was in season-from grapes to asparagus to cotton. I was very interested in the book the whole time, and read it in one evening. I have always been interested in Hispanic culture. I also read Esperanza Rising which tells the true story of the author's grandmother immigrating from Mexico to California and also working the migrant camps, and I enjoyed that book a lot as well.
This book would be great to have for upper-elementary to middle school/junior high children. I think I would have students read this on their own and do a book talk presentation to classmates. Hopefully other students would read it. Another activity I think would be fun is to read the book together as a class, and then have a mini-lesson about what the migrant camps were like. I think it's important for students to learn about them because we should know where most of our fruit and vegetable produce comes from. It comes from the hard work of these migrant workers. I really really liked this book-a great read and great for students to get to know-both the character and migrant camps.
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