Harvesting Hope

Krull, K (2003). Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez. New York, NY: Harcourt, Inc.

This is a biography on the life of Cesar Chavez. The author writes about Cesar's life from a young boy to the farm workers' march he led in California. Cesar and his family were doing rather well in Arizona, Then due to a drought they lost their farm and home. They were forced to move to California to look for work. As he got older, Cesar helped organize farm workers to ask for higher wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions. He helped to create the National Farm Workers Association. They gathered workers and organized a march from Delano to Sacramento. The march wasn't easy. It damaging to their bodies and not everyone agreed with what they were doing. By the time they reached Sacramento, word had spread about their working conditions. More people supported their cause. Cesar was able to negotiate with the farm owners and get  higher wages and better conditions for the workers.

I use this book every year when my class studies biographies. It won an illustrator honor award but the story is written well too. I believe students in 3rd grade or higher could read the story independently and gather a lot from it.