(2) YA Adapted by Andrew J. Rostan. Illustrated by Celia Jacobs. Jiménez's iconic, award-winning memoir -- an episodic collection of short stories published in 1997 -- receives a handsome graphic novel adaptation. Francisco's family leaves their small town on the outskirts of Guadalajara for the promise of a better life in California. Making their way to Mexicali, they dig under the wire fence to cross the border, finding employment in the southern part of the San Joaquin Valley as migrant farm workers. An early memory has a five-year-old Francisco watching his infant brother while his parents and older brother pick cotton. It's a hard life: constantly moving and uprooting themselves to find work; substandard housing, education, and medical care; and the entire family making sacrifices, both physical and emotional. Here, as in the original source material, Jiménez's plainspoken narration resonates with dignity, humility, and timelessness. The mixed-media illustrations convey both the time period and the mood of the piece with a limited color palette of olive green, lavender, and vermillion on a sepia background. (Francisco is drawn here with black hair and brown skin, rather than the fair skin and blond hair described in the original source and in the family picture that accompanies the author's note.) A glossary is also appended.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024

(2) YA This fourth volume of Jiménez's memoir series (The Circuit, etc.) covers graduate school at Columbia during the turbulent 1960s, his courtship and marriage to college sweetheart Laura, and their children's births. Throughout, Jiménez never forgets his beginnings as the child of migrant farm workers. The humble sincerity of Jiménez's prose makes us root for him to succeed. A selection of captioned photographs is appended.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2015

(3) YA This Spanish-language version of Jiménez's Pura Belpré Honor Book Reaching Out has been flawlessly translated. Jiménez's third semi-autobiographical tale takes him from home as he attempts to break out of poverty and get an education. The author's works about growing up in a migrant farmworker family are seminal for helping to describe the Latino experience in the United States.

Reviewer: Tim Wadham

(3) YA Jiménez (The Circuit, Breaking Through) continues the fictionalized story of his maturation, here describing his character's college years in the early 1960s. The writing is precise and evocative, with the author's affection for family and friends being especially palpable. A quietly compelling book for older teens and an important contribution to the body of works addressing the immigrant experience.

Reviewer: Amy Lois Cohn

(3) 4-6 Jiménez translates his two award-winning memoirs, The Circuit and Breaking Through, into Spanish. These carefully and lovingly translated editions offer Spanish-speaking children the opportunity to enjoy these powerful stories. [Review covers these titles: Cajas de cartón and Senderos fronterizos.]

Reviewer: Tim Wadham

(3) 4-6 Jiménez translates his two award-winning memoirs, The Circuit and Breaking Through, into Spanish. These carefully and lovingly translated editions offer Spanish-speaking children the opportunity to enjoy these powerful stories. [Review covers these titles: Cajas de cartón and Senderos fronterizos.]

Reviewer: Tim Wadham

(2) 4-6 This sequel to The Circuit follows the pattern of the coming-of-age novel. Francisco and his family obtain visas that allow them to enter and stay in the United States without fear of deportation. Like its hero, the book's pace is steady and deliberate, relying upon natural development rather than theatrics. For all its recounting of deprivation, this is a hopeful book, told with rectitude and dignity.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2001

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Claire B. Cotts. This story, a version of which appeared in Jiménez's autobiographical novel The Circuit, is presented here in a bilingual picture book format with an excellent Spanish text. Panchito longs for a red ball for Christmas, but when he receives only candy, he rises above his disappointment and shares it with his large, loving family. Mural-like illustrations soulfully depict the hard life and strong people of the migrant labor camps.

Reviewer: Elena Abos Alvarez-Buiza

(2) YA Originally published only in paperback, this is the first hardcover edition of the moving and transcendent book that won the 1998 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for fiction; the appended author's note is from Jiménez's acceptance speech for that award.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.

(4) 1-3 Illustrated by Simon Silva. Francisco, a migrant child, doesn't speak English, and when he joins school he daydreams and watches the classroom's caterpillar, whose eventual metamorphosis mirrors Francisco's own. Adapted from The Circuit, Jim_nez's autobiographical collection of stories, the affecting text is less well served by the picture-book format and static illustrations. Also available in Spanish. Glos.

Reviewer: Elena Abos Alvarez-Buiza

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Simon Silva. Francisco, a migrant child, doesn't speak English, and when he joins school he daydreams and watches the classroom's caterpillar, whose eventual metamorphosis mirrors Francisco's own. Adapted from The Circuit, Jim_nez's autobiographical collection of stories, the affecting text is less well served by the picture-book format and static illustrations. Also available in English.

Reviewer: Elena Abos Alvarez-Buiza