Harvesting Hope

Title: Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez

Author: Kathleen Krull

Illustrator: Yuri Morales

Awards: Pura Belpre Honor Book

Medium: Acrylics, handmade stamps, and computer-created cutouts on BFK Rives paper

Genre: Biography

Theme: Perseverance and social change with non-violence

Summary: A Cesar Chavez biography from when he was ten years old living on his family’s ranch to when he was thirty-eight fighting for social justice.

Literary Elements: The genre is biography and there are no cited sources in the book that questions its accuracy and credibility but there is enough information to make it truthful and accurate. For example, Cesar’s experiences with school and his family’s ranch early in life and later in his life with social movement give it an authenticity as a biography. The facts and story line are integrated beautifully with facts and text blending in with illustrations and the story. The social details are interesting and linked with Cesar Chavez’s accomplishments. The social details such as his socioeconomic status, mother, school and work experiences show where Cesar comes from in his advocacy for better work conditions and his social movement with non-violence. Cesar is well developed and multidimensional because the book showed the range of his emotions, struggles, feelings and actions that makes him real as a person and there is no stereotype. The writing style is engaging and easily understood and shows depth and values of the character. The complex topic is explained clearly with reasons for Cesar’s desire to change and how he changed it with non-violence and with illustrations supporting the topic like picking oranges in orchards, meeting with women for his first meeting, National Farm Workers Associations’ flag and using map for the protest march. The themes are perseverance and protest with non-violence and highlight a special quality of the biography – an emphasis on non-violence for changes. The illustrations help readers visualize time and place of Cesar’s childhood ranch, the journey to Californian fields, the struggles of working in the fields and the march to Sacramento.

Evaluation: At first I questioned the accuracy of the biography because there were no sources but when I read the back flap of the book, I saw that the author was acclaimed for her innovation with biographies along with having an award for this biography. I would guess that would mean she would have done her research and her information was accurate. I enjoyed the book and read about the experiences that made Cesar Chavez who he was today and his social movement. I was the most impressed with the repeated message of non-violence thorough the biography and I felt that gave out an important message about making changes without violence. I would use this book in my future classroom.