Dolores Huerta: A Hero to Migrant Workers

First-time children’s book author Warren creates a stirring portrait of activist Huerta, focusing on her efforts to improve the lives of migrant workers. In 1950s California, Huerta, then a teacher, was concerned about the welfare of many of her Spanish-speaking students. Visiting the children’s migrant worker families, she learned about their unlivable wages and long hours spent picking grapes. When Huerta’s challenges to the workers’ bosses fell on deaf ears, she urged workers to strike and appealed to consumers not to buy grapes until the workers’ demands were met. Warren writes in accessible if halting prose that celebrates Huerta’s strengths: “Dolores is a storyteller. When the bosses won’t change their minds, she tells stories that show why their farms are not healthy places to work.” Casilla’s naturalistic watercolor and pastel paintings convey the sensitivity, outrage, and determination of an activist who is still at work to this day. Ages 7–10. (Apr.)