Jesse

Gary Soto

ISBN 10: 1435277880 ISBN 13: 9781435277885

Publisher: Paw Prints 2008-05-16, 2008

Synopsis

In this new edition of his first young adult novel, Gary Soto paints a moving portrait of seventeen-year-old Jesse, who has left his parents' home to live with his older brother. These Mexican American brothers hope junior college will help them escape their heritage of tedious physical labor. Their struggles are humorous, true to life, and deeply affecting. Young adults will sympathize with the brothers as they come to terms with what is possible for each of them in an imperfect world.
    
Includes a reader's guide.

About this title

About the Author:

Gary Soto's first book for young readers, Baseball in April and Other Stories, won the California Library Association's Beatty Award and was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. He has since published many novels, short stories, plays, and poetry collections for adults and young people. He lives in Berkeley, California. Visit his website at www.garysoto.com.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 9 Up-Set in Fresno, California, in the late 1960s, this coming-of-age tale is told from a Mexican American's point of view. Jesse, 17, is full of self-doubt amid the increasing tensions caused by the war in Vietnam, pressure from within his circle of friends to join the protests of Cesar Chavez, and by the general social and academic milieu of the local community college that he and his older brother attend. The young men share a rundown apartment; they work as day laborers in the fields as well as find and sell junk to earn their way. Already insecure about his lack of experience with girls, Jesse has his nose bloodied by a drunken high-school acquaintance while on his first date. This violence presages other incidents that, although relatively minor, allude to the overarching shadow cast by the war and by the omnipresent draft. The story is poignant, pregnant with unfulfilled promise and dreams of a future that is hoped for but rarely imagined. Simple words reveal universal experiences; innocent and open, Jesse begins to see the real world and discover his place in it. The ending is a bit bleak, suggesting the likelihood of more of the same mindless, backbreaking, spirit-crushing work, with a plethora of unknowns lurking just over the horizon. Readers looking for a finely written, contemplative narrative will appreciate this work.
Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Jr. High School, Iowa City, IA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Paw Prints 2008-05-16
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1435277880
• ISBN 13: 9781435277885
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 166