Week 6 Booktalk: Under the Same Sky (Realistic Fiction)

Week 6 Booktalk: Under the Same Sky (Realistic Fiction)

DeFelice, C. (2003). Under the same sky. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Click the link to hear my booktalk:  http://vocaroo.com/i/s0RhoE5eJBm4

Have you ever worked hard to get something and then realized it wasn’t what you wanted after all?  You always want what you can’t have, right?

Under the Same Sky by Cynthia DeFelice is a realistic fiction chapter book that you won’t be able to put down!  Fourteen-year-old Joe desperately wants a motorbike, but his parents can’t afford to get him one.  His dad makes a deal with Joe that he can work on the farm, with the migrant workers, all summer to earn money for the bike.  Joe spends his summer with Manuel, the crew boss, and Luisa, a pretty, young worker, and many other crew members.  It wasn’t pleasant work; on page 32, it says, “Let’s just say I wasn’t chilly for long.  Soon the sun was beating down.  This was good because it drove away the hordes of mosquitoes that tormented me at first, but awful because I was wearing a black T-shirt.  I felt as if every ray from the sun was drawn directly from the sky onto my sweating back.  Finally, I took off the shirt and stuffed it into the pocket of my jeans, which helped a little, but not much.”  

A tough summer ensues as several of the crew members are threatened with deportation and people from town want the migrant workers to leave.  What will happen to the crew?  How will Joe’s relationship with the crew change his life?   You need to read Under the Same Sky by Cynthia DeFelice to find out.