Reviews

The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child by Francisco Jiménez

juliebcooper's review against another edition

5.0

Read this as one of two books on migrant child farm labor for our upcoming bookclub. I highly recommend this to adults who are curious as well as to parents with kids (it's written in a young persons voice) who may not know that there are children who still work the fields in the US and are the reason we have fresh veggies and fruit at meal time. This reflects a personal history that took place decades earlier, and yet the story is still the same to this day for many migrant kids. The book we are reading as a companion to this and which I start next, was written by teens from WA state and recently published. It's called "DreamFields: A Peek into the World of Migrant Youth". A good friend of mine was the editor and works with the kids whose stories appear in the book.
http://dreamfieldsbook.wordpress.com/

peterthereader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

bookhoarding's review against another edition

4.0

Stories from the childhood of a migrant worker. A quick read, and probably meant for a younger audience, but worth taking the time to see a side of life many of us never have to live. From crossing the border to working in the fields as a child, this book is full of vignettes of life. Being a child is full of school and games, but compound that with the maturity a migrant lifestyle entails and you get these stories. Stories of lost pennies, earned wages and deportation scares nestle beside games, lessons and naivete.

I read this for research for my M.A. project and I'm glad I did.

rsubramanian's review against another edition

5.0

I just finished reading this with my students. It's an excellent book and I highly recommend it! All of my students loved it too. I can't wait to read his next book, Breaking Through.

harkless's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

lorayne's review against another edition

3.0

I enjoyed the simple way that Jimenez told stories about his childhood and was quite engrossed in the book. I was really disappointed with the ending, though. I thought that pages had fallen out of the back of the book because it was such an abrupt way to finish the story. I'm going to read Breaking Through now in the hopes that my questions will be answered and I can feel some closure.

smoocheee's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

3.0

trisha_thomas's review against another edition

4.0

Oregon Battle of the Books

A really great book. I think it's great for both kids - a great way to open your eyes and remember - the kids in class are more than just the kids sitting next to you. You have no idea what they face (vs what you face) when you both leave school.

clevergirl216's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.75

aniacalafo1's review against another edition

3.0

3,5