A Day's Work
Picture Book Read Aloud
book summary
Francisco is a young Mexican-American boy who wants to help his grandfather, who is a recent immigrant, find work. Immigrants, like his grandfather, hang out at certain street corners to get picked up for a day’s work. Francisco negotiates with a man who pulls up in a van and gets a gardening job for his grandfather, even though his grandfather did not know anything about gardening and could not speak English to understand the project he was supposed to complete. Francisco and his grandfather work hard all day, but, unfortunately, they pull all of the crops and leave the weeds, instead of pulling the weeds and leaving the crops.
The grandfather is upset when he finds out that Francisco lied in order to get him the job. The grandfather insists that they get a second chance so that they can make it right. The man from the van is impressed with his work ethic and lets them fix the mistake. The grandfather is able to teach his grandson a valuable lesson about honor and telling the truth.
suggested teaching point
On page 21, encourage readers to think about the feelings the grandfather is experiencing.
Grandfather is just learning that instead of pulling out the weeds, they had pulled up all the flowers and left the weeds. He is also learning that Francisco lied to Ben to get him the job. What is Grandfather thinking and feeling now? How do you think Grandfather is feeling? How else might Grandfather be feeling now?
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