Cesar Chavez : A Hero for Everyone (Milestone)

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Gr. 3-5. As the book opens, in 1962, Chavez is knocking on the doors of California farm workers and explaining how a union would help them. The narrative turns back to Chavez's Depression-era childhood and follows his life chronologically, focusing on his struggle to organize and carry out a nonviolent movement to improve the lot of farm workers. Soto clearly shows how Chavez's outlook and determination were rooted in his boyhood experiences with poverty, injustice, and prejudice against Mexican Americans; he was later influenced by his meetings with activists and his admiration for pacifists. Readers who know little of Chavez will come away with a basic understanding of who he was and what he accomplished. Like other books in the Milestone Books series, this is designed for easy reading, with fairly large type and well-spaced lines, though the vocabulary is not oversimplified. Black-and-white illustrations appear throughout the book, and a bibliography is appended. A good, short biography of Chavez to pair with Kathleen Krull's picture book Harvesting Hope [BKL Je 1 03]. Carolyn Phelan
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Book Description
¡Viva la causa! ¡Viva César Chávez! Up and down the San Joaquin Valley of California, and across the country, people chanted these words. Cesar Chavez, a migrant worker himself, was helping Mexican Americans work together for better wages, for better working conditions, for better lives. No one thought they could win against the rich and powerful growers. But Cesar was out to prove them wrong -- and that he did.


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Gr 3-5-Several books have been written about the pacifistic defender of migrants' rights in this, the 10th anniversary of his death. Unfortunately, this one is written in stilted and lackluster prose. Soto focuses on Chavez's leadership in the '60s grape boycott and the strikes that were supported by Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. He paints the grim picture of "how one group of poor people was being pitted against another more desperate group," the Mexican Americans versus the government-sponsored illegal Mexican braceros, and describes how the situation was fueled by greedy and racist growers. Lohstoeter's black-and-white pencil drawings fit the somber mood of the text. The fact that the road to social equity is a tumultuous one is a message that young readers will not miss; it's too bad that the writing is so pedestrian.-John Sigwald, Unger Memorial Library, Plainview, TX Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.


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