The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child

Francisco Jimenez

After dark in a Mexican border town, a father holds open a hole in a wire fence as his wife and two small boys crawl through.

So begins life in the United States for many people every day. And so begins this collection of twelve autobiographical stories by Santa Clara University professor Francisco Jim�nez, who at the age of four illegally crossed the border with his family in 1947.

"The Circuit," the story of young Panchito and his trumpet, is one of the most widely anthologized stories in Chicano literature. At long last, Jim�nez offers more about the wise, sensitive little boy who has grown into a role model for subsequent generations of immigrants.

These independent but intertwined stories follow the family through their circuit, from picking cotton and strawberries to topping carrots--and back agai--over a number of years. As it moves from one labor camp to the next, the little family of four grows into ten. Impermanence and poverty define their lives. But with faith, hope, and back-breaking work, the family endures.

"A jewel of a book"--Rolando Hinojosa-Smith

"These stories are so realistic they choke the heart."--Rudolfo Anaya

Winner of: The Boston Globe/Horn Book Award for Fiction, 1998; the 1998 California Library Association John and Patricia Beatty Award; the 1997 Am�ricas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature; and a 1998 Jane Addams Children's Book Award Honor

". . . [a] moving book . . . The Circuit beautifully captures the rhythms of everyday life and the dreams and aspirations of a migrant family. Jim�nez writes credibly in the voice of his young protagonist. Pancho is a compelling and memorable character, at the emotional center of a book that will appeal to both adult and teenage readers." --MultiCultural Review

"An assortment of stories that remain independent, yet they intertwine . . . [Jim�nez] wrote the story in an honest and delightful voice. It's a wonderful representation of a culture that exists in the U.S. but is foreign to most Americans." --KLIATT

"Jim�nez's exquisite autobiographical short story 'The Circuit' is widely anthologized. . . . Like Steinbeck's classic Grapes of Wrath, Jim�nez's stories combine stark social realism with heartrending personal drama." --Booklist

"There are moments of wonder . . . Francisco Jim�nez is a master craftsman of words, with a simple yet crystalline style . . . The Circuit speaks intimately of migrant life in the western United States--a life that might be known by its politics or sociology but here is given a human face." --New Mexico Magazine

4.75 x 7 146 pages