Theme Song

This year I have the exiting opportunity of helping out the the Reading Olympics team.  If you don't know about Reading Olympics you should definitely check it out here.  Every year the committee comes out with a book list and since I just have a handful of Newbery winners to finish I thought I would start looking at some of the Reading Olympics books.

The first one I read was Pam Munoz Ryan's Esperanza Rising.  I have to say if the rest of the books on the list are as good as this one it is going to be a very good time indeed.  The story is about a young girl, Esperanza, who is the daughter of a very wealthy Mexican rancher.  Her life is filled with a loving family, friends, school, parties and beautiful dresses, but that all changes when her father is attacked by bandits.  Now Esperanza must move to California in the middle of the great depression and find work in a labor camp.  The situation is anything but easy, however-as the title suggests-Esperanza must find a way to rise.

Sometimes I think, "If this character had a theme song, what would it be?"  For Esperanza I was stuck between two options.  One is Stronger by Kelly Clarkson (watch it here) and the other is Big Yellow Taxi by Counting Crows and Joni Mitchell (seen here).  Read the book, listen to the songs, see which one you think fits best.

Having a theme song...that's kids stuff