Under the Same Sky - Softcover

DeFelice, Cynthia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0374480656 ISBN 13: 9780374480653

Publisher: Square Fish, 2005

Synopsis

A teenager discovers racism and romance on his father's farm

For his fourteenth birthday, Joe Pedersen wants a motorbike that costs nearly a thousand dollars. But his mom says the usual birthday gift is fifty dollars, and his dad wants Joe to earn the rest of the money himself and "find out what a real day's work feels like." Angry that his father doesn't think he's up to the job, Joe joins the Mexican laborers who come to his father's farm each summer. Manuel, the crew boss, is only sixteen, yet highly regarded by the other workers and the Pedersen family. Joe's resentment grows when his father treats Manuel as an equal. Compared with Manuel, Joe knows nothing about planting and hoeing cabbage and picking strawberries. But he toughs out the long, grueling days in the hot sun, determined not only to make money but to gain the respect of his stern, hardworking father. Joe soon learns about the problems and fears the Mexicans live with every day, and, before long, thanks to Manuel, his beautiful cousin Luisa, and the rest of the crew, Joe comes to see the world in a whole different way.

In her sensitive new novel, Cynthia DeFelice explores our dependency on migrant workers and simultaneous reluctance to let these people into our country and into our lives.

Under the Same Sky is a 2004 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

About this title

About the Author:

Cynthia DeFelice is the author of many bestselling books for young readers, including The Ghost of Fossil Glen, Wild Life, Signal, The Missing Manatee, and Weasel. Her books have been nominated for an Edgar Allen Poe Award and listed as American Library Association Notable Children's Books and Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year, among numerous other honors. She lives in upstate New York.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Peering through the misty rain, I saw two white vans with green stripes and some kind of official-looking insignia pulled up to the side of the road. I watched as four guys in uniforms got out of the vans, looked toward us, talked for a minute, and began heading our way across the field.

Silence fell as, one by one, each crew member stopped work to look and then froze. Someone asked a question in Spanish, and I heard panic in his voice. I could feel fear in the air. It was contagious.

"Who are those guys?" I asked. My voice sounded high and squeaky. I wanted to run, but didn't know why. There was nowhere to run to, anyway. The men were drawing closer. To my amazement, I saw that they had guns in holsters around their waists.

"Who are they?" I repeated urgently, when no one answered.

"Migra . . ." someone whispered.

About this edition

• Publisher: Square Fish
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0374480656
• ISBN 13: 9780374480653
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224