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89 pages 2 hours read

Francisco Jiménez

Cajas de Carton

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1996

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“The Circuit” and “Learning the Game”Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Story Summary: “The Circuit”

In "The Circuit," the strawberry season ends and Jimenez feels a deep sadness over the family's impending move to Fresno for grape and cotton season. They make this move each year, and Jimenez is tired of the constant resettling.

The family finds work at a vineyard in Fresno, where they live in a garage with a dirt floor and holes in the walls. Jimenez is in the sixth grade, but he doesn't attend school; instead, he and his brother, Roberto, work with Papa picking grapes. One day, while out picking, the brothers have to hide while the school bus passes, so they don't get taken in on truancy charges. Jimenez watches as boys his age, in nice clothes with books under their arms, pass by.

After grape season is over, Jimenez finally gets to enroll in the sixth grade. It is late November. Roberto, who is a few years older, will continue to work with Papa, and won't get to go to school until February, after cotton season is over. Jimenez feels pain for his brother's inability to attend school and reflects, “I did not want to look up and face him. I knew he was sad” (80).

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