Esperanza Rising

4.5 stars. Here's why I like middle-grade fiction so much right now – it has the power and ability to discuss complicated and heart-wrenching topics in an accessible yet direct fashion. You get to the heart of the matter without the neuroses of adulthood adding unnecessary complications.

Esperanza Rising is about a criolla in Mexico who had a privileged early childhood, only to face the hard truths of Mexican laborers and Mexicans in the U.S. There's a hard look at class and how we treat others we believe to be beneath us and there was a moment in the book that felt ruthless in addressing how we perceive the poor and the homeless, or at least ruthless to me.