Esperanza Rising

A modern classic for our time and for all time―this beloved, award-winning bestseller resonates with fresh meaning for each new generation. Perfect for fans of Kate DiCamillo, Christopher Paul Curtis, and Rita Williams-Garcia.

Pura Belpre Award Winner

* "Readers will be swept up." -Publishers Weekly, starred review

Esperanza thought she'd always live a privileged life on her family's ranch in Mexico. She'd always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home filled with servants, and Mama, Papa, and Abuelita to care for her. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California and settle in a Mexican farm labor camp. Esperanza isn't ready for the hard work, financial struggles brought on by the Great Depression, or lack of acceptance she now faces. When Mama gets sick and a strike for better working conditions threatens to uproot their new life, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances--because Mama's life, and her own, depend on it.

Winner of Pura Belpre Award (Author) 2002 Winner of WILLA Literary Award (Young Adult) 2001 Winner of Jane Addams Children's Book Award (Books for Older Children) 2001 Commended for Americas Award for Children & Young Adult Literature (Grades 4-8) 2000 Commended for Jefferson Cup (Young Adults) 2001 Commended for Massachusetts Children's Book Award 2002 Short-listed for Bluebonnet Awards 2003 Short-listed for L.A. Times Book Prize (Young Adult Fiction) 2000 Short-listed for California Young Reader Medal (Middle School) 2003 Short-listed for Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award 2004

“Told in a lyrical, fairy tale-like style, Ryan''s (Riding Freedom) robust novel set in 1930 captures a Mexican girl''s fall from riches, her immigration to California and her growing awareness of class and ethnic tensions. Thirteen-year-old Esperanza Ortega and her family are part of Mexico''s wealthy, land-owning class in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Her father is a generous and well-loved man who gives his servants land and housing. Early in the novel, bandits kill Esperanza''s father, and her corrupt uncles threaten to usurp their home. Their servants help her and her mother flee to the United States, but they must leave Esperanza''s beloved Abuelita (grandmother) behind until they can send for her. Ryan poetically conveys Esperanza''s ties to the land by crafting her story to the rhythms of the seasons. Each chapter''s title takes its name from the fruits Esperanza and her countrymen harvest, first in Aguascalientes, then in California''s San Joaquin Valley. Ryan fluidly juxtaposes world events (Mexico''s post-revolution tensions, the arrival of Oklahoma''s Dust Bowl victims and the struggles between the U.S. government and Mexican workers trying to organize) with one family''s will to survive--while introducing readers to Spanish words and Mexican customs. Readers will be swept up by vivid descriptions of California dust storms or by the police crackdown on a labor strike ("The picket signs lay on the ground, discarded, and like a mass of marbles that had already been hit, the strikers scattered..."). Ryan delivers subtle metaphors via Abuelita''s pearls of wisdom, and not until story''s end will readers recognize how carefully they have been strung. Ages 9-14. (Oct.) --Publishers Weekly, October 9, 2000--starred review Moving from a Mexican ranch to the company labor camps of California, Ryan''s lyrical new novel manages the contradictory: a story of migration and movement deeply rooted in the earth. When 14-year-old Esperanza''s father is killed, she and her mother must emigrate to the U.S., where a family of former ranch workers has helped them find jobs in the agricultural labor camps. Coming from such privilege, Esperanza is ill prepared for the hard work and difficult conditions she now faces. She quickly learns household chores, though, and when her mother falls ill, she works packing produce until she makes enough money to bring her beloved abuelita to the U.S.. Set during the Great Depression, the story weaves cultural, economic, and political unrest into Esperanza''s poignant story of growing up: she witnesses strikes, government sweeps, and deep injustice while finding strength and love in her family and romance with a childhood friend. The symbolism is heavy-handed, as when Esperanza ominously pricks her finger on a rose th6me just before her father is killed. But Ryan writes a moving story in clear, poetic4anguage that children will sink into, and the books offers excellent opportunities for discussion and curriculum support. -Gillian Engberg ---Booklist, December 1, 2000 After a fire destroys their home and belongings, Esperanza (Hope) and her mother must flee their native Mexico to the United States with the help of their housekeeper and her family. The formerly wealthy Ortega women are now "peasants" and must work to survive. Despite the difficulties of life at the camp, Esperanza learns to work, to care for others, and to give rather than take. When her mother becomes ill and is hospitalized, Esperanza is alone except for the companionship of her friend and former servant Miguel, and his family. After a year, on the eve of Esperanza''s fourteenth birthday, her beloved grandmother arrives from Mexico, Mama is released from the hospital and the little family is reunited. Now Esperanza is rising above circumstances, filled with dreams and possibilities. Numerous truths, lessons, Spanish terms, and symbols that include a crocheted blanket, rose cuttings, and a river”

Awards and Praise for Esperanza Rising:

Pura Belpré Award Winner

Américas Award Honor Book

Jane Addams Children's Book Award Winner

Willa Cather Award Winner

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist

ILA Notable Book for a Global Society

ALA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults

New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year

Children's Literature Legacy Award Winner

"Told in a lyrical, fairy tale-like style . . . Readers will be swept up." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"This well-written novel belongs in all collections." -School Library Journal, starred review

"Ryan writes a moving story in clear, poetic language that children will sink into, and the book offers excellent opportunities for discussion and curriculum support." -Booklist

"Ryan's... style is engaging, her characters appealing, and her story is one that-though a deep-rooted part of the history of California, the Depression, and thus the nation-is little heard in children's fiction. It bears telling to a wider audience." -Kirkus Reviews

Pam Muñoz Ryan is the recipient of the NEA's Human and Civil Rights Award, the PEN Center USA Award, and the 2024 Children's Literature Legacy Award for her body of work. She was the 2018 US nominee for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award. She received a Newbery Honor Medal and the Kirkus Prize for her New York Times bestselling novel, Echo. Her other celebrated novels, Esperanza Rising, The Dreamer, Riding Freedom, Becoming Naomi León, Paint the Wind, and Mañanaland, have received countless accolades, among them the Pura Belpré Award, the Jane Addams Children's Book Award, and the Américas Award. Her acclaimed picture books include Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride and the Sibert Honor book When Marian Sang, both illustrated by Brian Selznick, Mice and Beans illustrated by Joe Cepeda, and Tony Baloney illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham, as well as a beginning reader series featuring Tony Baloney. Ryan lives near San Diego, California, with her family.

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