Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan – BigNerdes Book Review

I was excited to read Esperanza Rising because Pam Munoz Ryan wrote perhaps my all-time favorite Y.A. novel, Echo. It did not disappoint.

Munoz Ryan excels at crafting thought-provoking historical fiction for the fourth/fifth grade crowd…though I personally enjoy her work myself and think other adults would feel the same. In Esperanza Rising, she takes the reader to 1920s Mexico, still reeling from the Revolution. When tragedy strikes thirteen-year-old Esperanza’s wealthy, land-owning family, she is forced to depart from her beloved ranch to the fields of California.

Esperanza must adapt to a very different way of life that includes navigating strikes and learning even basic jobs. Munoz Ryan does a laudable job of presenting the complex issue of workers’ rights—if Esperanza and her friends and family strike, what if they are replaced by workers coming in from Oklahoma (“Okies”) as the Dust Bowl and Great Depression of 1929 loom large over her new country?

This book prompted me to examine my own family’s immigration story. My grandfather also immigrated in the 1920s from a small farming community in Germany and later sent for my grandmother. He was sponsored by another German family and worked for them for some years before gaining the right to farm his own land. My grandfather tragically died when my dad was seven, and my grandmother was forced to fend for herself, learning English–and even how to drive–from kind neighbors. My father was the youngest of six children and the first to go to college. Many of my relatives have followed suit.

While Esperanza Rising doesn’t make me feel any less pride in my own family history, it does provoke thought. What if my relatives were forced to immigrate to the crowded conditions of California grape and cotton fields rather than the wide-open spaces of Illinois with acres upon acres of corn and beans farmed by single families? What if my family’s skin was a different shade?

Obviously, the issue of immigration casts a very large shadow over our country a hundred years later. While I try not to impose my own viewpoints on my students (I work 1:1 with kiddos age K-12th grade on literacy concepts and literary analysis), I also want to encourage intellectual curiosity and a willingness to ask difficult questions. Esperanza Rising is a powerful introduction to the complex tapestry of our country (knitting is used as an effective extended metaphor throughout the book) and what it means to live the American Dream for different groups of people.

On a final note—I am so grateful for the warm welcome to this community! While I hope to review—and read reviews—of all types of books, I will often review books for young readers. In my opinion, Esperanza Rising is a worthy read by a talented author.

PS—I learned to use italics! 😉 I have yet to master the virgulilla.