The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child

This is a collection of short stories based on real life. Mr. Jimenez was born in Mexico, and came to California as a young boy with his parents. They were undocumented workers. Eventually he became not only a citizen, but a professor at Santa Clara University in California.These stories, based on his own life, and the lives of his friends and relatives, give an immediate entre into the world of the migrant worker. How hard it was to make a living, how difficult to attend school, to make friends, to become educated. How impossible to keep promises made.This is a collection of compelling stories, that will make you laugh, and make you cry. It tells about the people who pick the lettuce in the salad you just ate, the cotton in that tee-shirt you're wearing, the oranges in your juicer.If you've never thought about who picks those cherries you're eating right now, this book will give you those thoughts. It is a delightful book, filled with love, tenderness, compassion, and passion. This book will introduce you to the people who work the fields, cook our meals, wait our tables, who go unnoticed unless it is politically expedient to see them.O. Henry wrote "Gift of the Magi" which is marvelous; Dr. Jimenez wrote "Christmas Gift" which will be the Star in your night! It is now August, and Christmas is a few days down the calendar, but now is the time to start buying those stocking stuffers, and this is certainly one you want get as many copies as you need for all those stockings you need to stuff!

A captivating view of migrant life from a child's eyes, August 26, 1999This review is from: The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child (Paperback)This is a book that is suitable for all ages. Jimenez manages to describe his childhood in a manner that captivates the reader. I could not put the book down once I began reading. Do not think that just because these events happened long ago,that migrant families do not experience some of the same horrors today, for they do. I teach ESL to adult migrant workers and after reading this book I have an even greater respect for these hard working individuals. The farms and ranches of California could not exist as they do today without migrants who do the back breaking work in the fields. Most evenings at class my students (both men and women) come in directly from the fields, their eyes bloodshot, their hands rough and calloused, their backs bowed over. But they come eager to learn English so they can get a better job, or so they can help their children have a better education. An admirable people and Jimenez's book provides insight into their difficult working and living conditions.

I have read this book multiple times, since I have used it as a read-aloud for intermediate students as well as in book groups with adult ESL students. I love how the books grow in sophistication with Panchito, who wrote the books as an adult, using notebooks he kept as a young man, as well as his memory. This book, the first, is very simply written, and the second, about his high school years, grows more explicit about the barriers he faced as a boy from a migrant-worker family. The third and fourth books deal with his time at Santa Clara University, and his graduate time at Columbia in New York.As a frequent reader of the series, and particularly this book, I can state that I have never grown tired of the story, from Panchito's memories of the train trip to Tijuana to crawl under a fence to be met by a coyote who would take the family to the fruit fields, to his first day at school in a time before bilingual education, to his growth in conscience and social awareness, to the family's eventual deportation. These are great books, especially in this time when empathy for "economic refugees" seems in short supply in our nation's political life.

I was asked to read this book for school. I wasn't feeling terribly excited to do so. I just have a hard time reading books for school, especially when they are not what I would normally read. However, I started reading this book and I finished half of it in one sitting, going well over and above what was assigned reading. I finished the book in two goes. It was engaging and interesting. This book was powerful and insightful and really helped me to understand the plight of the migrant worker and his family, especially the children of migrant workers. I am planning to buy the other books in the series even though they are not assigned to me, just to understand how this remarkable man came from nothing to a college professor in his life. I was very happy with this book.

Good stories helpful book to people that need to understand English in their first try's

I read this book as required summer reading with little to no expectations. The reviews from my older classmates about this book had been mostly negative, so I wasn't very thrilled going into this read. After finishing the book I have a POV of my own that is very different from my classmates. I enjoy how the story is told innmany different short stories each with their own meaning and relevance in the authors life. I enjoy how, this book may not be directly related to me and my story it gives me a mere glance into someone else's world that I didn't even know existed. In conclusion this story is one of triumph and heartbreak that culminates in a true masterpiece.

This is a truly amazing book. I'm not going to post a long review for this book, as I believe the 5-star reviews explains my thoughts verbatim. I would, however, like to say that my class was awarded the most pleasurable experience of talking to Francisco Jimenez through Skype (graciously set up by my professor).Jimenez, now a professor himself, is probably the most sweetest, humble, and thoughtful person we've ever met. His beautiful personality is clearly evident in his novels, and the uncensored emotion in each of his books truly helps us to understand the anguish and obstacles that many people in his same position must go through. I recommend this book for all ages, as the lessons his novels will teach you are timeless and universal.

Libro fue solicitado en escuela

É uma linda história real de uma família de imigrantes mexicanos ilegais, narrada do ponto de vista de uma das crianças. A personagem principal muda muito, aprende, evolui e supera os graves dilemas. Uma lição de vida.Leitura solicitada para os alunos do 7o ano (12 anos de idade).