Tonight submitted Esperanza Rising By Paula Munez Ryon I know I misspelled that name here. Is a novel for intermediate grades and older readers From the book jacket: Esperanza believed her life would be wonderful forever. She would always live on her family's ranch in Mexico. She would always have fancy dresses and a beautiful home filled with servants. Papa and Abuelita would always be with her. But a sudden tragedy shatters her world and forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California, where they settle in a camp for Mexican farm workers. Esperanza isn't ready for the hard labor, financial struggles brought on by the Great Depression, and lack of acceptance she now faces. When Mama gets sick, and a strike for better working conditions threatens to uproot their new life, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances-because Mama's life and her own depend on it. Pura Bel pré Award Winner Jane Addams Children's Book Award Winner Willa Gather Award Winner ALA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year 2000 *"Told in a lyrical, fairy tale-like style Readers will be swept up." -Publishers Weekly, starred review *"Easy to booktalk, useful in classroom discussions, and accessible as pleasure reading, this well-written novel belongs in all collections." -School Library Journal, starred review Second book: Images from the Dark the Story of Carolyn James This is by Andrew Whitehouse and is about a very famous blind water color artist and poet. Quite a touching book and explains all the different experiences that she went through as she adjusted to vision loss and eventually total blindness do to retinitis pigmentosa. Worth reading. Great book. both under .rtf catagory. Shelley L. Rhodes and Judson, guiding golden rhod3021@xxxxxxxxxxxx "One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time" ~ Carl Sagan