My Sugar Beet Summer
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Michigan State University Press
Publishing:1st Aug '26
£16.95
This title is due to be published on 1st August, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
In 1928, nine-year-old Teresa leaves everything she knows in San Antonio—including her beloved cat Diamante—and boards a train bound for Michigan, where her parents have found work in the vast sugar beet fields of Saginaw. The long train north is a source of fascination, but stepping into Michigan feels like entering a different world—the cold wind, the strange houses, and the long days helping on the farm instead of going to school. Teresa cares for her little sisters while her parents tend to the sugar beets. She learns to navigate a life shaped by hard work, migration, and constant change. After the harvest, a new season begins, and the whole family must pack up and make the long trip back to Texas, to plant new roots. Based on the stories the author’s grandparents told her about their lives as Texas migrants in Michigan’s Thumb, My Sugar Beet Summer pulls the reader into Teresa and her family’s life in a new land, on a sugar beet farm on the eve of the Great Depression.
“I Am Teresa offers middle school readers a powerful glimpse into the history and struggles of migratory farmworkers through an engaging and heartfelt narrative. This story promotes empathy, resilience, and cultural awareness, making it an excellent choice for classrooms seeking to connect history with lived experiences.”—Michelle D. Headley, Former Migrant Education Director, Hart Public Schools
“Readers will discover the story of a young Mexican American girl from Texas, who leaves the school and friends she loves, when her family is forced to travel to Michigan to earn a living as farm workers in Michigan. There are adventures, new friendships, long days of hard work. Teresa and her family leave the reader with an increased understanding of migrant farmworkers.”—Christina Manker, Former Teacher and Director of Bilingual Programs for the Holland Public Schools
“A brilliant and sensitive story about a young Mexican American girl, Teresa, who travels with her family from Texas to Michigan to join migrant farmworkers working on the sugar beet farms. Through her experiences, readers gain a rich sense of the culture and humanity of Mexican American farmworkers as they adapt from urban living to the migrant lifestyle, including their joys and hardships, and the new relationships with the people they meet.”—Ruben Martinez, PhD, Professor Emeritus in Sociology, Michigan State University.
ISBN: 9781611865936
Dimensions: 216mm x 140mm x 10mm
Weight: 172g
80 pages