Dolores Huerta: A Hero to Migrant Workers

by Sarah Warren

Theme: Biography

Additional Resources: Full length book reading in Spanish

The Hard Times Jar

by Ethel Footman Smothers

Theme: Migrant Workers

Description:  Emma Turner loves books and dreams of one day having the store-bought kind, but the Turners are migrant workers and money is tight. That means "no extras," so Emma must be content to make her own stories and books. Emma has a plan, though – she's going to save all the money she earns picking apples and put it in Mama's hard-times jar. Then there will surely be enough for extras. But when Mama tells Emma that this year she has to go to school instead of to work, it spoils everything. Now she will never own a store-bought book! But school turns out to have a wonderful surprise in store for Emma.

Harvesting Hope: The Story of César Chávez

by Kathleen Krull

Theme: Biography

Teaching Resources: Lesson suggestions from Yuyi Morales, illustrator

Cosechando Esperanza: La Historia de César Chávez

by Kathleen Krull

Theme: Biography

Teaching Resources: Lesson suggestions from Yuyi Morales, illustrator

Spanish Language

Lakas and the Makibaka Hotel

by Anthony D. Robles

Theme: Protest

Description:  When Lakas strolls through his neighborhood one sunny afternoon, the last thing he expects to find is a group of drum-beating, tap-dancing, karaoke-singing new friends. But these new friends face a crisis: the Makibaka Hotel, where they make their home, is about to be sold. They must pack their belongings and leave their home in thirty days. Lakas soon leads his new friends in a protest against their eviction.

Bilingual book (Tagalog)

Migrant

by Maxine Trottier

Theme: Migrant Workers

Description: The Low German-speaking Mennonites from Mexico are a unique group of migrants who moved from Canada to Mexico in the 1920s and became an important part of the farming community there. But it has become increasingly difficult for them to earn a livelihood, and so they come back to Canada each year as migrant workers in order to survive. And while they currently have the right to work in Canada, that right may be challenged. This book follows Anna as Each spring she leaves her home in Mexico and travels north with her family where they will work on farms. Sometimes she feels like a bird, flying north in the spring and south in the fall. Sometimes she feels like a jack rabbit living in an abandoned burrow, as her family moves into an empty house near the fields. But most of all she wonders what it would be like to stay in one place.

Roses for Isabella

by Diana Cohn

Theme: Labor Rights

Description: Roses for Isabella invites us to experience life in Ecuador through the eyes of a young girl who keeps a journal and loves to write. We learn about Isabella's parents who work on one of the hundreds of farms growing beautiful roses that are sold all over the world. But not all of these farms are fair to workers and kind to the earth. Through Isabella, we learn how her family's life changes for the better when her parents find work at a Fair Trade farm.

Teaching Resources: Lesson plan on Fair Trade tied to 3rd grade Common Core Standards

¡Si, Se Puede! / Yes, We Can!: Janitor Strike in L.A.

by Diana Cohn

Theme: Labor Rights

Description: ¡Sí, Se Puede! / Yes, We Can! is a bilingual fictional story set against the backdrop of the successful janitors’ strike in Los Angeles in 2000. It tells about Carlitos, whose mother is a janitor. Every night, he sleeps while his mother cleans in one of the skyscrapers in downtown L.A. When she comes home, she waves Carlitos off to school before she goes to sleep. One night, his mamá explains that she can’t make enough money to support him and his abuelita the way they need unless she makes more money as a janitor. She and the other janitors have decided to go on strike.

Bilungual book (Spanish)

Side by Side/Lado a Lado: The Story of Dolores Huerta and César Chávez

by Monica Brown

Theme: Biography

Teaching Resources: 3/4 Grade Lesson from Dolores Huerta Foundation

Bilingual Book (Spanish)

That's Not Fair!/¡No Es Justo!: Emma Tenayuca's Struggle for Justice

by Carmen Tafolla

Theme: Biography

Description: A vivid depiction of the early injustices encountered by a young Mexican-American girl in San Antonio in the 1920's, this book tells the true story of Emma Tenayuca. Emma learns to care deeply about poverty and hunger during a time when many Mexican Americans were starving to death and working unreasonably long hours at slave wages in the city's pecan-shelling factories. Through astute perception, caring, and personal action, Emma begins to get involved, and eventually, at the age of 21, leads 12,000 workers in a significant historical action in the Mexican-American struggle for justice.

Teaching Resources: Additional background on and photos of Emma Tenayuca

Bilingual Book (Spanish)

Tomás and the Library Lady

by Pat Mora

Theme: Migrant Workers

Description:  Tomás is a son of migrant workers. Every summer he and his family follow the crops north from Texas to Iowa, spending long, arduous days in the fields. At night they gather around to hear Grandfather's wonderful stories. But before long, Tomás knows all the stories by heart. "There are more stories in the library,"Papa Grande tells him.  The very next day, Tomás meets the library lady and a whole new world opens up for him.  Based on the true story of the Mexican-American author and educator Tomás Rivera, a child of migrant workers who went on to become the first minority Chancellor in the University of California system.

Teaching Resources:

• Lesson suggestions from author

César Chávez: Labor Leader and Civil Rights Activist (3:51) 

PBS LearningMedia

Outlines how César Chávez created the United Farm Workers, the first successful union for farm laborers. Students will watch a short video and examine two primary sources in order to understand how Chávez was able to successfully organize a movement among some of America’s poorest and most oppressed workers.