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    Breaking Through
    Breaking Through
    Breaking Through
    Audiobook5 hours

    Breaking Through

    Written by Francisco Jiménez

    Narrated by Robert Ramirez

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    As he prepares to recite the Declaration of Independence before his eighth grade social studies class in California, the thing Francisco has feared for ten years finally happens. La migra, the immigration police, come to his classroom and pick him up for deportation to Mexico. Soon back in the United States with a "green card," Francisco struggles through adolescence, working two or three jobs a day and striving to excel at school. But he also finds time to be a typical teenager in the 1950s, an era of cool cars, dances, and Elvis.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateFeb 27, 2015
    ISBN9781490672618
    Author

    Francisco Jiménez

    Francisco Jiménez emigrated from Tlaquepaque, Mexico, to California, where he worked for many years in the fields with his family. He received both his master’s degree and his Ph.D. from Columbia University and is now the chairman of the Modern Languages and Literature Department at Santa Clara University, the setting of much of his newest novel, Reaching Out. He is the Pura Belpre Honor winning author of The Circuit, Breaking Through, and La Mariposa. He is also the recipient of the John Steinbeck Award. He lives with his family in Santa Clara, California.

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    Reviews for Breaking Through

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      4.5****

      This autobiographical novel is the sequel to Jimenez’s striking first work, chronicling his family’s life as migrant workers in late 1940s California. The novel picks up where The Circuit left off and focuses on Frankie’s junior high and high school years. A bright child, he worked to help support his family and worked doubly hard at his studies with the dream of becoming a teacher.

      It is a story about perseverance and determination, about the cruel realities of poverty in this land of plenty, about the value of a good education, and about opportunity extended by those who recognized something special in a child.

      Jimenez doesn’t call these books memoirs, though they rely heavily on his own experiences. He must rely on sketchy memories of his youth, and obviously had to create dialogue that, while true to the essence of what was occurring in the story cannot possibly be completely accurate; and so he calls his works fiction. The novels are written so that they are accessible for the middle-school student, but have sufficient depth to be enjoyed by adults.
    • 3/5
      This sequel to the author's original book The Circuit outlines the true life story of Jimenez and his immigrant family. At the age of 14, just when things were looking better, his family was caught by immigration authorities and sent back to Mexico. Through sheer tenacity, they passed required tests and were allowed back into the states. Continuing to live in grinding, never ending, gritty poverty, the family worked together to find a way to survive.Very intelligent, bright, and determined, Francisco excelled at school. Through his hard work and dedication, he graduated from high school, and with the help of excellent teachers/mentors who cared, was able to apply and receive scholarship for college.He went on to receive both his masters degree and his Ph D from Columbia University. The book cover states he is the Fay Boyle Professor of Modern Language and Literature, and director of the ethnic studies program at Santa Clara University.I couldn't help but route for this young man! Never giving up, always determined, eyes of the prize, he is a shining example of success.
    • 5/5
      I think this is a great book to learn about immigrant culture and how hard it is to come to a new country. I think many of my students could benefit from seeing what their parents went though to bring them here.
    • 5/5
      Another excellent book for ages 12 to adult about the life of a migrant gentleman.
    • 5/5
      Pura Belpre Honor AwardAmericas Award Winner for Children's and Young Adult LiteratureBest Books for Young AdultsBooklist Editor's ChoiceThis sequel to The Curcuit is a fictionalized memoir of Jimenez’s teenage years in the late 1950s, when the family finally stayed in one place and Francisco and his brothers worked long hours before and after school to put food on the table. First they picked strawberries in the fields. Later the jobs got better: cleaning offices, washing windows and walls, waxing floors.
    • 5/5
      This is one of those little books with an enormous impact. It could almost pass for a fantasy, considering the trials and adversity the author went through on the road to growing up. Not only is interesting for those who were born and grew up never worrying about "la migra", it is, as the back cover states, a book for children who never see their lives in print, thus making it an important contribution to any library.