This novel is a 2024 Lone Star novel. I don't entirely feel that the novel should be on the 2024 list. Lone Star novels are supposed to make kids WANT to read. They're to be engaging. We want students to enjoy reading. During the last few years, the list represents many diverse books. I have absolutely nothing against diverse books, but the students aren't reading books from the Lone Star list anymore because the books are not engaging. Some of them are flat out boring, which has created students who avoid the Lone Star list.

Is A Seed in the Sun a good book? Yes. Is it a page turner? No. It's a book teaching about the migrant labor movement. I learned a lot, but the book wasn't an amazing reading experience. It was perfectly fine and full of information. To be on a reading list, a book needs to be more than fine.

Lula arrives in California with her family to work in the fields only to discover that the Filipinos are striking for better wages and work conditions. Lula's parents see little reason to participate. Unfortunately, Lula's mother becomes so sick that she can no longer work in the fields, much less do anything in the home. This situation means that Lula and her older sister must stay home from school and take care of the small kids. Lula's sister has dreams of attending college and doing good in the world. Their father, however, sees girls as fulfilling only traditional roles. He will make the decisions; they will obey.

The Mexican workers finally join the Filipinos in the strike. Lula's dad finds Cesar Chavez captivating and believes what he says, choosing to also join the strike. This decision gives Lula's mother a chance to see a doctor, as the United Farm Workers offer health care for the strikers. In addition, Lula discovers el Teatro Campesino, the theatre group used to demonstrate what the strikes hope to accomplish for the workers. Lula would love to participate, but her voice no longer works. Something happened that has taken it away.

If one is interested in history, please enjoy reading this book. Overall, it's a very nice story about a young girl who disobeys her mother and father several times in order to advocate for herself and her family, hoping for a better future. The book was a nice way to learn more about the United Farm Workers and the benefits of the union. ( )

Beautifully written, the novel in verse focuses on the events of the 1965 farm workers strike in Delano, CA from the voice of a middle school aged daughter in a migrant farm family. Labor leaders like Dolores Huerta and Caesar Chavez show up in the book as do the Filipino leaders who initially started the strike and worked to build a coalition of multi-ethnic workers to the movement which became the United Farm Workers.
Lula deals with a mom made sick from pesticide, a dad who is angry and stuck to strict gender roles and his role as the leader of the family, a sister who wants desperately to go to college, an older brother who wants to pursue nursing, and her own work to get her voice back.
The chapters are short. Poetry striking. Use of Spanish is peppered throughout the text. ( )

Twelve-year-old Mexican American Lula longs to speak out and stand up against oppression in 1960s Delano, California.

Lula lives with her migrant farmworker family in bedbug-infested barracks. Her older sister, Concha, loves school just like Lula does; big brother Rafa works the fields with Mamá and Papá while youngest siblings Gabi and Martín tag along. Papá drinks, has an unpredictable temper, and only shows love to the littlest ones. Lula dreams of being able to make Papá smile. When Mamá becomes gravely ill, she’s turned away from the emergency room due to lack of money. A local curandera thinks she’s been poisoned by pesticides used in the fields and treats her with herbs. At school, Lula befriends Leonor, a Filipina and Mexican American girl, and is inspired by her powerful voice and grit. Leonor’s family is involved with the Filipino strikers’ union, the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee. The AWOC are recruiting the Mexican National Farm Worker’s Association, led by Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chávez, to join them in striking for better wages and conditions. This introspective novel with a well-developed sense of place features free verse in varied layouts that maintain visual interest. The character development is strong; as Papá is influenced by Chávez, who speaks of nonviolence, his behaviors change. Lula shows tenacity as her seeds of potential are nourished.

Compelling and atmospheric. (author’s note, further reading) (Verse historical fiction. 9-13)

-Kirkus Review