Dolores Huerta (American Lives)

Jennifer Blizin Gillis is a Heinemann Raintree author.

Grade 3-6-These books do a good job of presenting the main accomplishments of two notable women. Huerta was born in New Mexico but spent much of her childhood in California where her mother ran a hotel frequented by poor farmworkers. She became a teacher, but left her job so that she could work full time to improve working conditions for farm laborers. With César Chávez she helped to create the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA). Moreno was born to an affluent family in Guatemala but she came to the United States in her 20s. She was appalled by the working conditions she found in factories and became a crusader for workers' rights. She formed a union of garment workers and later became a leader of the AFL. The biographies are laudatory in tone, but do not shy away from controversy. The large type and the simple texts will appeal to reluctant readers as well as ESL students. Colorful borders, colored text boxes, and period photographs add to the visual appeal. Dana C. De Ruiz and Richard Larios's La Causa: The Migrant Farmworkers' Story (Raintree, 1992) discusses Huerta's work with Chávez and goes into more detail about the creation of the NFWA, but it is on a higher reading level. Solid introductions to underrepresented figures.-Donna Cardon, Provo City Library, UT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.