Customer Reviews: Read 305 more reviews...
 Reads almost like a song September 29, 2008
I did not expect this book to amaze me as much as it did. Maybe it's the fact that this is based on the true story of the author's grandmother, but this book is written with such heart and love it will set you weeping. At the same time, it's beautiful, touching, and rich in inspiration and the human spirit.
Esperanza is a girl who lives the life of a princess in Mexico. However, the fairy tale syndrome strikes her when her father dies. Her cruel uncle demands her mother marry him, so Esperanza, her mother, grandmother, and the family of trusted servants head for the boarder of the United States where their life is utterly turned around.
No longer is Esperanza a princess, but a girl who has been given the opportunity to truly find herself in a brand new and terrifying world of workers and poverty.
Maybe some people would not want this piece of history romanticized, but the author reveals a certain beauty of just how incredible these people were in what they did.
It's edgy, romantic, and thorougly inspirational. The writing is almost like poetry.
Very good book ! Good message to youth. August 13, 2008
This was simply a good read for youth or perhaps for anyone. The story sent out a message concerning discrimination, learning and coping with change, and growing and evolving into a stronger human being. Thumbs up !
Beautifully written and moving July 1, 2008
Based on her grandmother's experiences as an immigrant and a migrant worker in the 1930's. Ryan has written a beautiful and sensitive book about a young girl who is forced to flee her home and her sheltered life in Mexico to becme a migrant worker in the US.
Highly recommended!
 I Liked It June 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Esperanza Rising," a great book to read over the summer.This book is about a young girl whos life goes way down hill but at the end her life changes a bit but she's always with the people she loves most. If you don't like it at first give it a chance, that's what I did and I liked it alot. The book requires you imagining to be Esperanza. At the end think about what you read. It's a great book to think about at the end and see if you love it because your brain will do a little review and you will like it.
Singley, 5th grader
Enlightening May 28, 2008
We just recently listened to the the book Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan on. cd It has been awhile to have a book touch me and make me think like this book did. This book is based upon the stories a grandmother told her granddaughter, the author. The grandmother is Esperanza. Esperanza and her recently widowed mother make the difficult decision to leave Mexico, where they lived the lives of royalty to come to America, the land of the free. They leave with their servants who are now their equals and Esperanza learns the true meaning of "The rich take care of the rich, the poor take care of the poor". She sees firsthand the poorest of the poor giving away their food and help to those in even more need than they themselves face, and later is both giver and taker of doing just that.
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This is the first book I have read/listened to that tells the story of the Mexican Emigrants and the hardships they faced after coming to America, where "everybody" has a chance at becoming rich. It tells how they were looked down upon because they were brown skinned and therefore must be dumb, even if in Mexico, they had had a better education and/or training than the white Americans. Reduced to rags and poor poverty like conditions, they struggled to feed their families. American born Mexicans were deported to Mexico because of setting up strikes and trying to make things better for everybody. Mexicans, who were reduced to digging and laying tracks for the railroad, even if they knew the mechanics of how the engines work and how to fix them. This is one of those subjects I have never before heard as it was not taught in the schools I attended, whether for geographical reasons (Wisconsin), or because if it isn't in the books, it didn't happen or for whatever reason.
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My husband's great grandparents brought their family to America from Mexico, when his grandpa was a young boy. My husband's great grandfather came here to work as a railroad worker. As his grandfather has passed away, I don't know that we will ever hear what really happened when they came to America, but I can only pray that they did not face the prejudices that the people did in Esperanza Rising. I pray that whatever happened to my husband's family when they came here, that they too, like Esperanza rose above it and became stronger people because of it, not hardened and calloused, but better people because of their circumstances.
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