Esperanza Rising (Pura Belpre winner)

  Ryan, Pam Munoz. (2000). Esperanza Rising. New York: Scholastic Press.

  Esperanza Rising is the Pura Belpre Award winner for narrative for 2002.

  Esperanza Ortega has grown up on her family’s ranch in Mexico, where they grow grapes. It is the 1920’s. They are wealthy and she wants for nothing.

  When Esperanza turns 13, her father is killed. Her father leaves the house and income to she and her mother, but leaves the land to her uncle. He is cruel and wants to marry Mama. After the house burns down, her mother accepts but she and Esperanza, instead, flee with some of their ranch workers to California. Among them is Miguel, a servant boy Esperanza has grown up with. However, they have to leave her grandmother, Abuelita, behind. Once in California, Esperanza and Mama must learn to live as poor farm workers.

  Esperanza has to learn to do things she has never had to do. She takes care of babies. She cleans. When her mother gets sick with a lung disease, Esperanza must go to work as an adult, working with crops. Miguel helps her learn how to do things. All of this is happening while a strike is going on by the farm workers. They are threatening those who want to continue to work.

  Miguel and Esperanza have a fight and she calls him names. He leaves and they discover that the money orders Mama has been saving are gone, too. Esperanza is very angry with him.

  When Miguel’s mother tells Esperanza that he has returned, she doesn’t want to go pick him up, but she goes anyway. She is surprised to find Miguel has used the money to bring Abuelita to California and Esperanza is very happy.

  Just before Esperanza’s fourteenth birthday, one year since they left Mexico, she and Miguel go into the countryside in California. There, they listen to the earth and realize that, no matter where you are in the world, the earth will provide. Esperanza is happy because she has her loved ones with her.

  Understatement is used in Esperanza Rising, in particular when it comes to the Tios, or uncles. Although they are eventually called corrupt by a character, at first, it is simply their actions and words that lead the reader to believe they are evil.

    Figurative is also used in the book, as in Esperanza listening to the earth’s “heartbeat.”

 

Chato And The Party Animals (Pura Belpre winner)

  Soto, Gary. (2000). Chato And The Party Animals. (S. Guevara, Illus.). New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons.

  Chato And The Party Animals is the Pura Belpre Award winner for illustration for 2002.

  Chato is a cat in an Hispanic neighborhood. He has a lot of friends and is crazy about going to his friend’s birthday party every year.

  One year, he realizes his buddy, Novio Boy, is sad. He finds out it’s because Novio Boy came from the pound and doesn’t know his birthday.

  Chato decides to throw a birthday party for Novio Boy to cheer him up. He and his friends get all the food, decoration, and music lined up. But when it’s time for the party, they can’t find Novio Boy.

          They search all over the neighborhood but finally give up and have a memorial for him at the party.

          Novio Boy turns up after all (he’d been dumpster hopping) and the party gets underway. Novio Boy realizes it’s not as important to know his birthday as it is to have good friends.

      The illustrations in this book are clever. They depict the cats as Hispanic. The animals are pictured in human clothing, with human expressions. These illustrations definitely add to the Latino flavor of this book and compliment the Spanish words that are sprinkled in.