# Esperanza Rising

**Author:** Pam Muñoz Ryan
**Lexile:** 750L
**Grade range:** Grades 4–7
**Age range:** 9–13
**First published:** 2000
**Page count:** 272
**Genre:** Middle Grade Historical Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9780439120425`
**ISBN-10:** `043912042X`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/esperanza-rising
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Esperanza and her mother flee 1930s Mexico after her father's murder and arrive at a California farm-labor camp during the Great Depression. The novel is a widely-assigned 5th-7th grade text for its accessible Spanish-English bilingualism and its lens on Mexican-American labor history.

## Themes

- Mexican-American immigration
- Great Depression
- labor history
- class change
- resilience
- bilingual identity

## Content notes

- death of parent
- labor exploitation

Common Sense Media age recommendation: 10+

## Where this book is assigned

### Common Core State Standards (ELA)

- **recommended** · 5th grade — [source: CCSS ELA Appendix B, grades 4-5 exemplar](https://achievethecore.org/page/2699)
- **recommended** · 5th grade · California — [source: CA CCSS ELA grade 5 — Central Valley immigrant narrative](https://www.cde.ca.gov/)
- **recommended** · 5th grade · Illinois — [source: IL ELA grade 5 Hispanic Heritage Month text](https://www.isbe.net/)
- **recommended** · 6th grade · Texas — [source: TEKS grade 6 frequently-taught text](https://tea.texas.gov/)

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