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 and is the 2026 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.
Awards and Praise for Esperanza Rising: Pura Belpré Award WinnerAméricas Award Honor BookJane Addams Children's Book Award WinnerWilla Cather Award WinnerLos Angeles Times Book Prize FinalistILA Notable Book for a Global SocietyALA Top Ten Best Books for Young AdultsNew York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and SharingA Publishers Weekly Best Book of the YearChildren'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
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, firs 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 pearl's of wisdom, and not until story's end will readers recognize how carefully they have been strung. Ages 9-14. (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
Awards and Praise for Esperanza Rising: Pura Belpre Award
WinnerAmericas Award Honor BookJane Addams Children's Book Award
WinnerWilla Cather Award WinnerLos Angeles Times Book Prize
FinalistILA Notable Book for a Global SocietyALA Top Ten Best Books
for Young AdultsNew York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and
SharingA Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year* "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
Awards and Praise for Esperanza Rising: Pura Belpre Award
WinnerAmericas Award Honor BookJane Addams Children's Book Award
WinnerWilla Cather Award WinnerLos Angeles Times Book Prize
FinalistILA Notable Book for a Global SocietyALA Top Ten Best Books
for Young AdultsNew York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and
SharingA Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year* "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
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