About this project

This project is by Sydney Waldrop, a girl who, like many others who grew up in the suburbs of the late 2000s, read the novel Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan. In one part of the novel, the main character, Esperanza, is gifted a handmade blanket by her abuela. Her abuela describes the zigzag pattern woven into the blanket, and the symbolism between mountains and life's challenges. This motif follows Esperanza throughout the novel, and is also the heart of this project.

That is the only part of the book that Sydney remembers clearly; she could not even recall the title of the book until recently. Even so, this single memory of Esperanza's blanket struck a deep chord within Sydney, and she's carried it with her ever since she read it as a child. As Sydney climbed through both pits and peaks of her own life, she always returned to the knowledge that no matter how much she struggled, there would always be another side of the coin, another period of wins, another mountaintop to reach.

This project paints a portrait of not only Esperanza's journey in the novel, but Sydney's personal beliefs. The paper girl within these pages is Esperanza, it is Sydney, and it is you. With all of life's unpredictabilities, there is always the certainty of change.

Life is never still. Don't give up.

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