Historical Fiction

Title: Esperanza Rising

Author: Pam Muñoz Ryan

This award-winning historical fiction novel takes place during the Great Depression. It is about a young girl named Esperanza who flees to California from Mexico with her mother and faces realities that she never expected. This book was one of my favorite books when I was younger, and I would recommend it a thousand times over. I think that it is important that students read about the Great Depression from a cultural perspective that is different than the perspective they read from in textbooks. This book promotes cultural awareness about the struggles that Mexicans went through during this time and teaches readers something about U.S. history that they may not have been fully aware of before.

Rating: 5/5

This book is beautifully written and very eye opening to read. This book is definitely for higher level readers, but it is a book that everyone should have on hand in their higher level classrooms. Oh, and everyone should read this book because you will not regret it.