Harvesting Hope: The Story of Ceasar Chavez

 

Title: Harvesting Hope: The Story of Ceasar Chavez

Author: Kathleen Krull 

Illustrator: Caldecott Honree Yuyi Morales

Genre: Biography, Non-Fiction

Major Awards: Pura Belpré  Award

Ages: 6-10 Years old

Summary:

Every Summer night for Cesar Chavez, was like a party for him, until Cesar Chavez turned ten years old. He had relatives in which would come to his ranch for barbecue, watermelon, lemonade and fresh corn. Cesar's siblings, and his cousins would sleep over outside the ranch, but there were times where they could not be able to sleep at all because their aunts and uncles would tell all kinds of tales stories, and would sing most of the time. Cesar owned a eight-acre of their ranch back in the Arizona dessert. Cesar spent most of his childhood close to his cousins, but  he was inseparable with his brother, Richard. Cesar and Richard were like best brothers and best friends because there was not a day they would not spend a day apart. In 1937, when Cesar turned ten years old, the tress began to wither because he huge drought had hit Arizona. After a long struggle, Cesar's family could not own the ranch anymore.They had to flee to California to look for work.Now, Cesar and his family were considered migrants and they had to work for other people's farm.There were days where the only food Cesar ate was green dandelions that were picked along the road.The towns were not much better than the fields. During this time, White trade was read on every business on every corner. Once, after Cesar broke the rule of speaking English only, his teacher hung a sign on him that read, "I am a clown. I speak Spanish.: Ever since then, Cesar hated school. After Cesar graduated from right-grade, he dropped out and decided to work in the fields full-time. As a teenager, all Cesar wanted was to provide food on his family's table. As he worked, it bothered him that landowners would treat their workers more like farm tools than human beings.Anyone who would complain would get fired, beaten or even murdered. Cesar started to pay attention to the outside workers. In his early twenties, Cesar decided to dedicate the rest of his life to fighting for change.This time, Cesar would speak to the people into joining the fight. As people joined to fight for justice, The Cause was born. Cesar Chavez did not believe in violence. So,he formed a march. A march of more than 3,000 miles.On Easter Sunday, ten-thousands of people joined the march in Sacramento. Cesar Chavez had just signed the first contract for farmers in American history. In the end, the people cried and cheered of happiness. However, Cesar Chavez reminded them that the battle was not over. Their victory was reminded that there must be courage, and in their must be humility. There was much more work ahead, but some of the wealthiest people in the country recognized the poorest as human beings.

Book Evaluation:

1) I would definitely use this book for my class because this story delivers so many positive messages and what I loved about this book was that it is based on a true story. Also, as a future Bilingual teacher, I would teach a lot of Spanish in my instructions. This would be an excellent way to introduce a little History to the students about a Hispanic activist  who fought for human rights. 

2) I would recommend this book for the grade level First grade to Fifth grade.

3) I would use this book for the unit of History. I would be prepared with classroom questions to discuss it as a class. Then, I would have them watch a video of the victory march. After, I would have them write a journal reflection about the biography of Cesar Chavez. Also, this book would be a great book to introduce them what Human rights are and what kinds of people were involved in these marches to fight for change. This way this would give them an idea of what Human rights are, when I take the students to the Holocaust museum.