Synopsis: This story revolves around the life of a Mexican girl names Esperanza. Esperanza lives a charmed life on her family's beautiful ranch home with servants and anything Esperanza could ever want or need. But suddenly, when tragedy strikes, Esperanza is forced to flee from her wonderful home and everything she's ever known for a new life in California during the Great Depression whereto will live in a camp for Mexican farm workers. This of course is a far cry from her wonderful life back home in Mexico, and Esperanza does not feel prepared in the slightest for the physical labor she must do, financial situation she is in as well as the new discrimination she now faces. To make matters worse, Esperanza's mother becomes ill and she must now work to pay for her mother's care as well as both of their survival.
The author Pam Munoz Ryan does an excellent job of creating an element of suspense in her writing that kept me hanging on until the very end. Ryan's writing also contains so much emotion that sets her writing apart from the works of others.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book because of the message of the importance of rising to the occasion and the many teachable moments throughout the story. Not only did I enjoy the many lessons folded into Esperanza Rising, but I enjoyed the drama and suspense that made me feel very involved in the plot. I enjoy books that can pull at my emotions and make me feel truly invested in the main character and this book did just that.
While reading this book, some very obvious lesson ideas popped into my head, such as using this book to discuss life as immigrants and immigration, discussing labor rights and working conditions during the great depression, and also just in general using this book during a unit on the Great Depression. I found a lesson plan to go along with an Esperanza Rising unit that included many of these ideas and the website can be found here: http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/esperanza-rising-learning-not-be-afraid-start-over#sect-objectives
I also stumbled upon a few fun activities to incorporate after reading this book including making posters with some of the Mexican Proverbs written in the book before chapter one and students draw pictures to make the posters pop. I could also have my students create acrostic poems with the name of a character and a word to describe them for each word. That way they could analyze the characters in this book in a fun way. These activities were found on a website that can be found here: http://www.bookrags.com/lessonplan/esperanza-rising/funactivities.html#gsc.tab=0
I also found a well done book trailer that ban be found here:
If you would like to read more information about the author, you can visit her website by clicking on the link here: http://www.pammunozryan.com
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