CM Magazine: Dolores Huerta: Advocate for Women and Workers. (Remarkable Lives Revealed).

________________ CM . . . . Volume XXIV Number 8. . . October 27, 2017

cover
Dolores Huerta: Advocate for Women and Workers. (Remarkable Lives Revealed).

Linda Barghoorn.
St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree, 2017.
32 pp., pbk., hc., & html, $9.95 (pbk.), $21.56 (RLB).
ISBN 978-0-7787-3422-2 (pbk.), ISBN 978-0-7787-3418-5 (RLB), ISBN 978-1-4271-1917-9 (html).

Subject Headings:
Huerta, Dolores, 1930-Juvenile literature.
Mexican American women labor leaders-Biography-Juvenile literature.
Women social reformers-United States-Biography-Juvenile literature.
Labor leaders-United States-Biography-Juvenile literature.
Social reformers-United States-Biography-Juvenile literature.

Grades 3-6 / Ages 8-11.

Review by Alison Schroeder.

**** /4

excerpt:

Without realizing it, Dolores had become a powerful role model for many women. They admired her strength and commitment to stand up for others. A meeting with well known feminist Gloria Steinem informed Dolores of the growing movement for women’s rights. She began to include women’s issues in her struggle for equality. She has encouraged women to look beyond their traditional family roles and pushed them to accept political positions within government. She continues to be a strong advocate for the rights of women and Latinos.

Dolores Huerta is an inspiring activist for farmers and women's rights, a teacher, an organizer in grassroots movements, and she has participated in high level United States politics and presidential campaigns. This biography explores her life, challenges, and accomplishments through four small chapters, punctuated with facts and photos. It highlights Dolores’ early challenges in life being a female Mexican American, born in 1930 in America and growing up in a single parent family. It follows her early inspirations in life which were her mother and grandfather and, later on, her father, all of whom treated her as an equal in a time when women were often not empowered in that way. She earned a degree in teaching and was the first in her family to attend college, but she later left the profession as she felt she could have more of an impact fighting for the rights of poor, working class families, many of them farm workers in California.

This book would make an excellent subject for an in-class study or book report. There is a lot of valuable information in the book and inspiring subject matter for any student. It also contains lots of learning tools, like facts and questions throughout, as well as a glossary of terms and writing prompts at the end. It would make a great addition to a school library or any educational collection.

There are many photos in this book of Dolores Huerta and events that were significant in her life. This book also contains several historical images that put Dolores’ life and story into context, such as photos of the Delano Grape Strike that even shows Dolores holding signs and participating in the strike. Some of the more recent images in the book show her speaking at political rallies, receiving awards, and even being honoured with the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barak Obama in 2012.

Highly Recommended.

Alison Schroeder has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Manitoba and is a lover of children’s books.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

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