Customer Reviews

Reaching Out

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In Reaching Out, Francisco Jimenez traces his life as a Mexican immigrant child from a migrant farm worker family to his experiences as an undergraduate at Santa Clara University. Along the way, he encounters challenges and tensions as a first generation college student. Francisco shares with his readers how he reached out to a place so far removed from his childhood - Santa Clara University - and how others, particularly Jesuits, reached out to him to support him on this journey,

I truly believe that Reaching Out should be read by all students, particularly first year students. Many students will identify with the story and understand that they too can succeed. Those who come from families far removed from Francisco's background will better understand how to reach out to first generation students. In fact, I highly recommend that faculty read this book so that they may also understand how to reach out to students from backgrounds similar to Francisco's. Although Reaching Out deals with the life of a specific individual, it is truly a universal story.

Just like his other two books, The Circuit and Breaking Through, Reaching Out will be a treasure for generations to come.

Francisco Jimenez does a good job on explaining his College life in Santa Clara. I really enjoyed ready this book I felt that every time that I would start reading this book it would engage me and I wanted to keep reading the book. I think that its a good book for a student to read thats going to College. I like how the book shows the struggles that Jimenez has when he was going to College but had important people in his life that helped him not to give up in College. And because of them he proceeded with his education and became a College Professor. I think that before I read this book I would of liked to read the book about his childhood and I think that now I would like to read all the books that he wrote. Because his book shows you that it doesn't matter were you came from that if you are willing to succeed in your life you can go really far in life. Its a really good book and I would recommend it to anyone but mostly for High School and College students!!

A touching story that can apply to ANYONE at certain points in their life. A great read for students in middle or high school. I bought a class set for my students and they are loving it!

This is the final book of Francisco Jiménez's autobiographical trilogy, a coming-of-age story about his escape from the grinding poverty of his migrant farm laborer family. The first two books are The Circuit, about his early childhood; and Breaking Out, about his junior high and high school years. I recommend all three books. I had bought the books in both English and Spanish for my daughter, who is a 6th grade student in a bilingual immersion school. I don't speak Spanish, and I wanted the English version so that I could follow along and maybe try to read some of the Spanish as well with an English translation at hand.

These books are a poignant look at a hard-working migrant family in California. Jimenez, the second-born of 6 children, is a brilliant and hard-working student who managed to graduate high school with honors and then manages to find a way to go to college as well -- the first in his family to attain this goal. These books are worth reading just for the sheer cussedness and determination he had to have to overcome his family's struggles. One of the most powerful parts is when he considers leaving school to help his family financially after they have a major setback, and a Jesuit professor at his college convinces him to stay and continue to excel in school, which will be a bigger help in the future. I'm glad to have read this moving story and would happily read another follow-up book about his subsequent doctoral work at Columbia and his ensuing career as a college professor and writer.

Having read the first two books in this trilogy I was excited to purchase this chapter in the author's life. It is a very personal tale of his experiences at Santa Clara University and since I am an alumna, I relived many of my college years through his eyes. I didn't feel that this book had the dramatic impact of the others. There were some wonderful moments, but I wanted to learn how he accomplished what he did. It was more of a recitation of events than a true insight into how these events transpired. Francisco rose from migrant worker with few English skills to a college professor. It is inspirational for young people, but could have been even more for adults.

Good read, fast and easy. He tells the story of growing up as an illegal alien in the US & how hard work and perseverence pays off.