Customer Reviews

Lupita Manana (Harper Trophy Books)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Lupita Manana is an interesting and revealing tale of the times: of the desperation of a people hungry for the promise of employment to provide simple sustenance for their lives. The traditional beckoning call of the United States to "give us your tired, your hungry, your poor..." is rebutted by the imigration policy and officials which seek to ferret out unregistered Mexicans working illegally in the states and adhere to a policy of repatriation. Patricia Beatty has crafted a narrative, replete with tragedy and sadness, as well as humor and joy. Fundamental to the story is the main character of Lupita, whose resiliency of spirit places her among that select group of characters called "survivors". Mourning the death of their Father, Lupita and her brother, Salvador, with the blessing of their Mother, set their resolve to cross the border from Mexico into the United States to earn money to support their family. Leaving their insular home, with the hope of finding work in the north, in quick succession, Lupita and Salvador encounter barrier after barrier to their determined intention. At first they fail miserably. Subjected to extraordinary pressures, hounded by "la migra", Lupita's indominable spirit ultimately leads to their prevailing. But their vision of life in the United States is contrasted by the harsh reality of menial chores and farm labor. Upper intermediate readers will be captured by the rapid pace of the drama as Lupita and her brother make their way from their small fishing village in the Baja Peninsula of Mexico to the sanctuary of their Aunt Consuelo's home in Indio, California. The prejudicial injustices Lupita and her brother encounter will likely spur analogous stories from students who, because of either age or ethnic backround, have experienced similar situations in which they were humiliated. Settled into a routine of life in the United States, Salvador's eager acceptance and attempts at attaching himself to the predominate trends in U.S. culture -- his seeming rejection of his foreign family and ethnic backround -- may likely perplex and exasperate some readers. Lupita Manana seizes the reader into the velocity of the story of hope, disillusionment, and conversion. Credibility is based upon Ms. Beatty's superb characterization of the sundry mix of personalities, and detailed recounts of the rigors of their lives as they endeavor to triumph each in a personal way.

Lupita Mañana

Lupita Mañana is a very good book, and I recommend you to read it, because the deeper you get into the story you feel that it is becoming very interesting.
It is about two Spanish kids that had to leave home looking to get to the U.S. after their father dies. In the U.S. they had an aunt that lives in a town called Indio, in California.
They needed to go to their aunt's house and then, they needed to look for a job and earn money to send it back to their mother. Their mother needed to pay some money that she owed to the moneylender. Also she can't maintain the family alone.
The interesting part of the story is on the way to the U.S. because they had to go through a lot of adventure. They crossed the border two times because the first time they get caught by la migra. The second time they made it crossing the border to the U.S. and other difficult things to get to their aunt house.
I recommend you to read Lupita Mañana's book because after you read it, you can see the immigrants in a different way, as this story shows how most of the immigrants came here.

It is an easy read with a fast paced plot, and accesable to upper elementary students. It touches on some very real issues facing the United States today. Still, I feel the book is lacking in many areas.

The dialog is unsuccesful at conveying linguistic paterns of Mexican Spanish speakers. They seem to say "sí" to just about everything. The dialog in English is equally problematic because her characters have not embraced the use of contractions. The result sounds stilted and highly uncharacteristic of a person speaking English with a Mexican accent.

If children read only one book about the journey of undocumented immigrants I think they will get a very narrow perspective from this book. Very few Mexican immigrants come from Baja California and for most the journey is much more arduos and deadly.

Would I recommend the book to children in a classroom? no.

I had to read this book for school, and normally the books we have to read for school are ok. But it's such a negative book, and it's sympathetic towards illegal immigration. It was a bad book, I didn't like it.

Lupita Mañana is a book very much about immigration policy, but it's also about the struggle people go through when they come here especially illegal aliens. It's enjoy- able because how much perilous crossing the border can be and it can also take you to a world unknown to most people. Lupita and Salvador Torres, two Mexican kids who came here after their father had died in a boat at sea. They were told to come here because their mom had to borrow some money from a moneylender and now she has to pay it back. And if she doesn't do that then she'd probably lose the house and she wouldn't have anywhere to go to.

For their luck, their mom's sister, Consuelo, was living here in Indio, California. However, Lupita and Salvador were illegal aliens so they knew that crossing the border wouldn't be that easy, but they took the risk because of their mom and also because they were looking for a better tomorrow since that's how Lupita got her nickname. The book is all about Lupita's tomorrow. So, as we all know, there are these immigration police guarding the border between Mexico and the U.S. unfortunately they didn't know how hard and difficult it'd be to cross the border. Because of the number of people coming here illegally, thief think they come with money since they have to pay the coyote who bring people illegally to the US. And that's what happened to Lupita and Salvador, they got into this coyote car and pass the border, but they got into this place where there were those thieves waiting for them or anyone who goes by. It was a terrible moment for our two young adventures, then a chopper come on sight with immigration police and suddenly a shot was heard! Everything thing quitted down, except for the police chopper. Someone said, "Someone got shouted," it was an old man who got killed by one of the thief's guns. After that, the immigration guys came and start asking for papers to everyone who was in there, but Lupita and Salvador didn't have any paper so they were told to go back and never cross the border again because if they got caught again a whole different story would take place.

After, struggling they could finally get to Indio and get a living in Consuelo's house, but they weren't welcomed. They had to work hard in the fields and after some time Salvador changed his way of life and behavior leaving Lupita all by herself to destiny's will. He went to live with one of his new friends, and he didn't care whether Lupita was fine or if she needed something. Then, it makes you think of all the dreams and hopes behind an unknown door to someone else's country would never ever be true because of the way things are going. But it wasn't that bad, after all Lupita realized how important English was and why she should learn it. So Irela one of Consuelo's daughters decided to help Lupita out with her learning English.

The way I see this book, it is really helpful for the ones who don't know how immigration works and how dangerous the illegal life can be. However, there are places where you can go and get help from. I would also recommend this book to young people especially because they'll be the future of this country and they have to know how things work in the US. Most people sometimes are against immigration laws and policies, but that's how things go and we can't change it. Nothing is perfect; sometimes things wouldn't turn out the way we'd liked them to. As for example, at the end someone was the only one who survived, while the other was caught by la migra.

Lupita Manana is a very interesting book. It captures immigration hope danger and love. Lupita is a young hopeful Mexican girl .Her father dies making her become an orphan at a very young age. Now Lupita and her brother have to earn money to feed the family. Her mom is fired from her job. Lupita and her brother can't find a job in México. So they leave to the United State. Their mom has a rich sister in the USA .where Lupita and her brother is going to stay. But when they get their they find out that she was very poor with a tan of kids.



Along the way Lupita and Salvador her brother meat a lot of obstacles .One of these obstacles is (La Migra) in other words the (INS) that kept chasing theme .I liked reading this book .Cause I like reading about immigrants. Cause guess what I am an immigrant. So I can relate to their situation .But I didn't like the ending cause something bad happens to one of the characters .If I were to rate this book I Will give it 4 out of 5 .Cause I didn't like something bad happening to one of the characters as the ending. I recommend this book for teens. I think this book will teach teens about immigration in general. I sayed teens specifically cause in my school some students make fun of immigrant kids about theme not being able to speak English very well. Also about close culture food and many sillier reasons that doesn't give any one in this world arson to make fun of another

A DREAM WITH LUPITA MANANA

Have you ever read "LUPITA MANANA"? If not, you should it's a great book! It's by," PATRICIA BEATTY". The
Beginning might be a little corny because it's not that in-
Terre sting in the beginning. Once you keep on reading, it gets more interesting. Its about a Spanish family who
Lives in Mexico. The main characters are LUPITA (13 years old),SALVADOR(15 years old),LUPITA'S MOM,
AUNT CONSUELO,AUNT CONSUELO'S KIDS,"LA MIGRA",and LUCKY.
It was a tragic beginning, lupita's mom lost her job and lupita's dad died.Lupita and Salvador needed mone-
Y, so they went off to United States to go find jobs.Lupi-
Ta was a girl that worries too much about everything.
Salvador is a type of boy that loves to take risks and
Relax.
They walk to Tijuana for days. Then they found the border but couldn't find there way in the border of M-
Exico. Then they had to go back to Tijuana for food and
Help to sneak in. They found food and help. They need to
Sleep enough so they can cross the border. Once they're
There, they try to cross the border. Do you think they make it? That's why you should read this wonderful
Book. "LUPITA MANANA" by:Patricia Beatty. I recommend this book to teens and adults so they learn a
Little experience about how they react. Also the problems and conflicts on there way to U.S.A. Also visualizing
What they gone through. Also the rough times Lupita and Salvador been through while they were in U.S.A.

This book was kind of boring at first but after a while it ended up being very interesting. It really made you thinkabout the hard things immigrants have to go through to come into the U.S.
I really liked this book having to have read it for a Language arts assignment, but i think the end kinda makes asudden stop. Other than that this was a very intesresting story.

Lupita Manana is a suspenseful adventure book that will keep you guessing until the end of the story, and you will not want to stop reading the book. This book is about a thirteen year old girl name Lupita and her brother Salvador, who is fifteen. Their father died in a sudden boat accident at the sea, and their mother didn't earn enough money to support the whole family. Lupita and Salvador were told to smuggle themselves to the U.S. and get a job to send money back to their mother in Ensenada, Mexico.

The author does an excellent job of describing their journey. They had to walk from Ensenada to Indio in California. The distance was close to 200 miles. They faced lots of danger along the way. They faced thieves on their way to Tijuana and also when they got to Tijuana. When they arrived to Tijuana they realized that crossing over wasn't going to be easy. Once they got to the United States, they had another obstacle, to find their Aunt Consuelo. Some Mexican Americans helped them out along the way. When they arrived at Aunt Consuelo's house they found out that their aunt was not rich as their mother told them. Lupita and Salvador had to work in the field to earn some money and send it to their mother.

I will recommend this book to the people that were born here and for people who immigrated here. For people that were born here, they've never had the chance to experience what people go through to come to the United States and the author does a really good job on explain it. And for people who immigrated here with the legal paper work, they don't know how people pass over the borders without any papers and get a job and always worry about the immigration police coming to get them. This book shows how the people were scared of the immigration police and how the Mexican Americans tried to help them out. When you read this book you will shocked about what people would do to come to the United States.

Book Review on Lupita Mañana!!
Lupita Mañana, the most unrealistic book I ever read! The book that stays on negative view all the time.
Lupita Mañana starts from Lupita's father's death. Because of money problems that Lupita's family is going through, their own mother decided to send Lupita and Salvador to the United States. Even though, their mother can not support her family. How could she send a 13 year old daughter and little older son to the United States? They had to walk days and days to get Tijuana (the border of Mexico and United States). They sometimes had to face hunger and fear for their life. They also had to sleep by the side of the road. Many people died from trying to cross border. Would you let your child to go through that, not just cross the border, but get lost several times at California? They had a hard time to find their aunt's house. But somehow they found Spanish speakers to get help and found their aunt. What magic!!
I don't recommend this book to small children, because of the fact that the book stays on a negative view all the time. Books for children can be fiction or unrealistic. But being negative is not really good for children. Lupita Mañana is one book that always stays on the negative. Whether Lupita is working hard or not, she lost her brother. She is just one girl that has all the negative things such as she still had to work in the field, people make a fun of her and people mistreated her. Children book could be negative at first but have to have a happy ending.
Because of all these reasons I only could give 2 stars for Lupita Mañana. My opinion of a good book is being realistic so people can actually feel with the characters. A book also has to be good for everyone. But Lupita Mañana is not a realistic book. All the family members didn't really care about other members. Not just characters unrealistic behavior the book always stayed on the negative views. These are reasons I don't recommend to others who really don't want to read unrealistic books.