A Day's Work by Eve Bunting

Spanish workers do not always get that much money in one day ($60.) Many times they make less than minimum wage.  The bosses are not usually that nice offering a straw hat and saying have a nice day.  It is a stereotype that a Spanish person is a gardener or landscaper.  I like how it included the grandfather not being a professional gardener and making a mistake by taking out the flowers instead of the weeds.  This experience relates to my life because in the Bahamas my parents hired a Bahamian to weed our house and they took out all of the plants instead. What my parents thought were flowers were not what the Bahamians thought.   Different cultures and countries have different ideas of what is a flower and what is a weed.

The book said, "Francisco gave a hop of excitement."  I think the author meant to write hope of excitement.  I looked up the author because I thought it may have been a Spanish to English translation issue but the author is from Ireland.  This makes me question the credibility of the author.  An author writing a book about the Spanish workers that did not personally go through it themselves can be unreliable.

I like how it included a few Spanish words.  This allows the students to understand that it is talking about the Spanish culture.  This also teaches the children a few Spanish vocabulary words.  I think the purpose of writing the story was to teach children about the work that some Spanish workers do.  I really like the grandfathers character because he was such a honest guy.  I also think it was written to teach children that being an honest and fair man in life is the right thing to do.  

Reference

Bunting, E. (1994). A Day's Work. New York: Clarion Books.