franciscojimenez

MADDY AND SARAH ENGLISH 8-4 Breaking Through Author and Book Exploration

1. __Breaking Through__ is written by Francisco Jimenez. Jimenez is the son of migrant workers who immigrated to the United States from Tlaquepaque, Mexico when he was just 4 years old. At the age of 6, Jimenez started to work in the fields with the rest of his family. During elementary school he struggled to learn English. He was only able to go to school certain parts of the year because of his parents jobs and they were moving often. Jimenez struggled so much in school that he flunked first grade. He attended Santa Clara University. He also went to Harvard University and got a Master's Degree and Ph.D. from Columbia University. He became Chairman of the Modern Languages and Literatures Department and the director of the Division of Arts and Humanities at Santa Clara University. He has as also been a director at the Uniersidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico for the Mexico Summer Study Program. Jimenez family is very close. They all have a great relationship because of their love for each other.The sense of family and honor is deeply emphasized in his comunity. 2. Other books he has written include __Spanish Here and Now__ and __The Circuit__. Jimenez has become famous for his amazing life story and has won several awards including "Professor of the Year" by CASE and the Carnegie Foundation because of his generosity and contribution towards the success of his students. 3. Francisco Jimenez main goal was to tell readers what it was like to be a Mexican migrant living in the U.S. __In Breaking Through__, he hoped to portray the idea of the negotiation he had to do while in high school between the two cultures. Some things were acceptable in American society that would not be acceptable in Mexican culture. This was hard for him to balance. Jimenez also incorporated that his salary that he earned went directly to his family's savings. It did not make sense to him that some kids at school would keep the money from their jobs as their own to do anything with. 4. __Breaking Through__ was published by Houghton Mifflin company in 2001. Francisco Jimenez has also written many short stories and articles about his life growing up. A few include "A Break Through", "To Have and to Hold", and "El Volador: the Tree of Life". These also talk about Jimenez life as being a migrant and are also autobiographical. 5. Hazel Rochman, from __Booklist Editor's Choice__ says,"...Jimenez writes with simplicity about a harsh world seldom seen in children’s books". Rochman also comments on Jimenez did not let any of the prejudice towards him get to his confidence; he has always been proud of his roots as a Mexican even while learning to be an American. Roger Sutton, editor of the __Hornet Book Magazine__ explains the book in his own words,"Like its hero, the book’s pace is steady and deliberate, relying upon natural development rather than theatrics or melodrama to achieve its goals". What he is saying is that Jimenez did not rely on dramatic events or fiction to make his book interesting; he simply told his life story and that was good enough of a book already. 6. Most readers say that __Breaking Through__ is a high-quality book. The book taught them about hard work and determination. They thought that Jimenez’s has strong word choice. Most kids that read the book found that they could really relate to Jimenez’s life and they looked up at him as a role model. __Breaking Through__ gave the readers a lot of insight on how migrant workers really lived. According to Amazon.com the readers average rating for the book is four and a half stars. 7. We found that most reviews had relatively the same content. None of the reviews that we read had controversal topics. According to most reviewers on the website __Santa Clara University:College of Art and Sciences__, __Breaking Through__ it was well written and Jimenez had clear, concise sentences. All of the reviewers agreed that Franscisco, a fourteen year old boy struggled with trying to balance the two, very different cultures in his life as well as his family and him being impoverished.

Works Cited Bold, Kathryn. __THE GRAPES OF WRATH__. Spring 1996. 30 Oct. 2008 . __Customer Reviews__. 30 Oct. 2008 .

Francisco Jimenez: Biography. 2008-1996. Scholastic. 30 Oct. 2008 . __ Francisco JimÃ©nez- Author Program In-depth Interview __. 2002. TeachingBooks.net. 30 Oct. 2008 . "Francisco Jimenez." __Volvo for Life Awards__. 2002. Volvo. 30 Oct. 2008 .

__Selected Reviews of "Breaking Through"__ 6 Sept. 2001. Santa Clara University: College of Arts and Sciences. 30 Oct. 2008 http://www.scu.edu/ethnicstudies/fjimenez/reviews/breakingthrough.cfm.