;)
Esperanza Rising
Set in the 1930s, Pam Munoz Ryan’s Newbery-winning novel Esperanza Rising (2000) takes up issues of racism, class, and farm labor against the backdrop of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Esperanza Ortega is the privileged daughter of a wealthy family in Mexico—until her father’s murder changes her family’s fortunes. Forced to flee to the United States, Esperanza, her mother, and their former servants settle in a farm camp to take on agricultural work. Labor tensions simmer, and poor working conditions lead to coughs and fevers. Meanwhile, Esperanza struggles to adjust to her new reality, one in which she now occupies a marginal class and race status, but over time, she builds strong friendships and learns to hold on to hope— the very thing her name means in Spanish.
-NK