A Seed in the Sun
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
**Four starred reviews!**
A farm-working girl with big dreams meets activist Dolores Huerta and joins the 1965 protest for workers’ rights in this tender-hearted novel in verse, perfect for fans of Rita Williams-Garcia and Pam Muñoz Ryan.
Lula Viramontes aches to one day become someone whom no one can ignore: a daring ringleader in a Mexican traveling circus. But between working the grape harvest in Delano, California, with her older siblings under dangerous conditions; taking care of her younger siblings and Mamá, who has mysteriously fallen ill; and doing everything she can to avoid Papá’s volatile temper, it’s hard to hold on to those dreams.
Then she meets Dolores Huerta, Larry Itliong, and other labor rights activists and realizes she may need to raise her voice sooner rather than later: Farmworkers are striking for better treatment and wages, and whether Lula’s family joins them or not will determine their future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Centering a family of migrant workers during the 1965 Delano grape strike, Salazar (Land of the Cranes) tackles civil rights and labor justice in an extensively researched novel in verse. In Delano, Calif., 12-year-old Lula, who is Mexican American, helps her siblings to drown bedbugs as they settle into "another labor camp/ as terrible as the last." But as Lula and her older sister Concha begin school, and their parents and older brother head into the fields with the littlest siblings in tow, the family learns that they've inadvertently crossed picket lines against Filipino workers striking for better wages. The situation intensifies when the siblings' mother becomes mysteriously ill and can't afford treatment; their father, who drinks, turns increasingly volatile; and the family faces increasingly dangerous working conditions, including the threat of pesticides and sexual assault. As Lula seeks her voice, her Filipina and Mexican American classmate Leoner speaks up for the Filipino-led Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, of which her family is a part and which seeks to collaborate with the Mexican National Farm Workers Association, striking for better working conditions for all. Spotlighting historical figures including Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chávez, Salazar's lyrical poetry shines offers a sensitive depiction of Lula's struggles and hopes, culminating in a personal arc that emphasizes developing one's voice. An author's note contextualizes historical language used. Ages 8–12.
