The circuit book review francisco jimenez biography
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About
“Not since Tomás Rivera’s . . . .and the earth did not part has a book expressed so well the experiences of the migrant campesinos as Francisco Jimenez has done in The Circuit. Its contents are representative of the best in the field of Chicano short story.” ~Luis Leal
The Circuit is a series of independent but intertwined short stories that brings the reader into the life of a young Francisco Jiménez, or Panchito as he was known as a child. Each autobiographical chapter can stand on its own, but when read in its entirety, it tells the story of Jimenez’ childhood growing up in a family of migrant farm workers. While this may be a slightly different style of novel than many students are used to, it’s actually quite reader friendly. Jiménez’s writing style is simple and clear—but not simplistic. He manages to capture the tone of a young boy, engaging both young and old readers alike. He expresses the emotions of Panchito in a way that a child could understand and
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THE CIRCUIT GRAPHIC NOVEL
A young Mexican immigrant tells the story of his family and the lives of other migrant farm workers in this graphic novel adaptation of a classic 1997 memoir that won multiple awards.
Panchito, whose family left the Guadalajara area and crossed la frontera in the late 1940s, is growing up with his parents and five siblings. As the seasons pass, they move around California—Selma, Visalia, Bakersfield, Corcoran, and Santa Maria, among other places—finding work picking different crops. Panchito’s story unfolds in chronologically arranged, self-contained short stories, and readers follow the family through their circuit, from picking cotton and strawberries to topping carrots and thinning lettuce. They experience significant sorrows, such as when baby Torito ends up near death due to a lack of health care. The narrative doesn’t dwell on these moments, instead sharing the truth of hardship: that even where there’s sadness, there’s also joy to be found. Panchit
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The Circuit
Selected Reviews of The Circuit
Editorial On The Circuit (from the Horn Book Magazine – Sept/Oct. 1998)
"When Nancy Vasilakis, chair of the 1998 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards committee, called to tell me about the winners, there was something in her röst that told me that some skådespel was at hand (for a complete list of the winners, see p. 652). She named the picture book winners, honor books first, then the tip prize. Ditto for the nonfiction, and then she started in with the fiction. Honor book, When No One Was Watching, honor book, My Louisiana Sky. Both terrific choices, inom thought. The Winner? The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child bygd Francisco Jimenez. I had never heard of it.
I should have, though. The book had already won the John and Patricia Beatty Award as well as the Americas Award; the tittle story had also been reprinted in a couple of YA short-story anthologies. But The Circuit was not submitted to the Horn Book for review-whic