I really enjoyed this book. I think the main message of this book is to never give up, no matter how hard things may seem. Throughout the whole book Esperanza faced hardship, she lost family and all their money, moved to a new place, and had to adapt to a completely different lifestyle. Although she faced all these difficult times, she never gave up and worked really hard to earn money to pay for her momma’s medical bills and pay for her grandma to come to the United States to reunite her family. Esperanza is a very believable character. For example, she is a 12 year old girl who went from being rich and having people constantly weight on her, but when she lost everything she didn’t quickly adapt to the “peasant lifestyle”. When they are fleeing to America, a peasant girl on the train wanted to play with the doll Esperanza father had given her, but she quickly snatched it before the girl could touch it. When her mother told her how rude that was she said “Mama, she is poor and dirty…” No child, or person for that matter would be able to quickly adapt to such a big lifestyle change. I personally feel this book makes readers broaden their perspective on things. We all have bad days, but I think this book allows the readers to take a step back and realize as bad as things may seem, they could always be worse. Esperanza lost her father, left her home and all her belongings, was separated from her grandma, she almost lost her mom, and she had to work very hard to survive and help her mother and grandmother. No matter how bad my day may seem, it is nothing compared to what Esperanza had to go through. ( )

Mouse feels sad because his best friend Bear is getting ready to go to bed for the winter.

bear is super sleepy during the beginning of the spring but finally wakes up when spring is finally here
1 book

I definitely had mixed feelings after reading this book. I think that the best part of this book was the plot. The story was about the beginning of winter and hibernation. The mouse was confused in why the bear couldn't stay with him all winter, and the bear replied, "'My little friend," Bear explained, "please understand. A bear needs to sleep all winter long.'" Through this text a young reader may begin to understand that certain animals need to sleep through the winter. On the other hand, features from the book such as the illustrations, or the characters, support my reasoning for why I do not like this story. I do not like the illustrations because they do not take up the entire page.I feel that there is too much white space on every page with exception to the last page of the book. I believe that having too much white space makes the book less aesthetically pleasing to read. The second thing I did not like was the relationship between the characters. Although this is a children's book, it is a very unlikely idea that a mouse and a bear would be best friends. However, even though I feel that the characters are not believable, I think that young children may still enjoy it. In conclusion, I think that the 'big idea' of this book is; strong enough friendships can last through even the long periods of time you spend apart. ( )

Bear feels the winter coming on and wants to go to sleep, but mouse tries to pursuede him that he'll miss too much if he does. Bear remains unconvinced that he'll miss most things- but he will miss one thing- mouse! Nonetheless he must sleep, but in spring they are together and happy again. ( )