Jane Medina

This is a story about Jorge, a boy who immigrated to the U.S. with his father, and little sister. The story covers his experience being placed in ELL classes, and basically segregated from the rest of the class, and also about how people of Mexican decent are viewed by the white kids, which is not good. Jorge experiences racism, and deculturalization at school as well as culture shock. He is used to being the smart kid back home, but at his new school, he is viewed as a dummy, in fact, this is how he views himself. The book also features intercultural discrimination in the form of colorism. Jorge talks about how he and his friend, Miguel call Marcela names and tease her for being "even darker" than Miguel, and they call her "Marcela la fea" throughout the book.
This is a good book to present to my students for the purpose of exploring the life and experiences of the children of immigrants. I can use this to give perspective, and to teach tolerance. This book gives both examples, and non-examples of tolerance and discrimination.… (mehr)