The Education of Margot Sanchez

When I started this book, there was a lot about it that reminded me of Esperanza Rising which was one of the books that I did my book talk on. I found that The Education of Margot Sanchez contained similar themes to Esperanza Rising like race, class, and hard work. I think that this text is an updated and more current version of Esperanza Rising because the main character Margot is living in a situation that she would like to remove herself from because her family doesn't have enough money to live the way she would like to. The book is also written with some Spanish phrases thrown in and that reminded me of Esperanza Rising. I believe that many of the teaching ideas that I had for that book could be used for this one as well because of how well this book could be used in a discussion with literature circles.

The development of the main character is also something that I would have my students look at because she is so complicated and complex and there are different aspects to her personality. Margot Sanchez is not a one-dimensional character and I think that students would benefit from outlining the character.

I also think that this text would be great for a reluctant reader because of how easy it is to connect to the reluctant Margot. I do not believe that this should be a whole class read because it will be harder for some students to connect to this character and then they would not be as interested in the text. This book could be placed into a whole unit around race, class, and family-issue and all of the students could read different texts that are centered around those main themes.

As for how this book was used in your class I liked the idea of reading an excerpt from a book to start of a class and to pique interest, but I do think that it would be important to read the book first before reading it to the class. As you were reading the line “the great brown hope” really struck me. It was such a powerful line that you could really expand on and connect to.