A Seed in the Sun

Gr 3-7–Seventh-grader Lula is the middle child of five in a Mexican American family. She may have inexplicably lost her voice—reduced to a “whispery rasp”—but she astutely bears witness to her family’s peripatetic struggles as migrant farmworkers in California: her mother is mysteriously ill; her father is too-often violently angry; her older sister dreams of escape. Inspired by her own mother’s stories as “a migrant farmworking child,” Salazar deftly weaves her fictional characters into the real-life 1965 Delano grape strike led by Filipino and Mexican activists, including Larry Itliong, Dolores Huerta, and Helen and Cesar Chávez. Spanish-fluent, youthfully pitched Villarreal is Salazar’s complementary cipher, augmenting the already resonating historical novel-in-verse with expressive rhythms and emotional depth. Salazar herself concludes the recording with a thoughtful “Dear Reader” afterword urging readers to “fight for justice through your voice.”