Rosa Written by Elaine Cunningham

ROSA

Rosa, written by Elaine Cunningham, is a Christian fiction story.

The story takes place in Yakima Valley, Washington on an apple orchard. It has 107 pages.

Rosa is the daughter of a Spanish migrant worker. He brings his family each year to Washington to pick apples from an orchard. This is how he supports his family. She is 12 years old and is upset about having to start at another new school because she knows she can only go for a few weeks. Once the apples are picked, the family must travel to the next job. Kids always make fun of her because she is Spanish and doesn’t speak English very well. It is very hard to make friends because they call her an illegal alien. All she does is cry.

Rosa makes a new friend the day before school starts, the first friend she ever had. Her name is Betty and her father is the pastor at the local church.

Betty tells her about the Christian school in the church and she is very excited from the sound of it. Betty tells her how nice the kids are and that she could also learn about God. She didn’t understand who God was, but He sounded wonderful and she became excited. Her parents let her go to the church school and Betty would help her with her school work. Betty’s mom would introduce her to God. She taught Rosa that Jesus would always forgive her, no matter what, and be her best friend.

Shortly before all the apples were harvested, Betty invited Rosa to

Sleep over and go to the lake the next day. Rosa’s parents were very strict about Rosa not going near the dangerous river, but she wanted to be with her friend. However, she soon found out that it was time to move on. Upset about missing Betty, she lied to her parents and told them she wanted to sleep at her cousin Elaine’s house and ride with them if work ended early. Her parents agreed and Betty assured Rosa everything would be fine.

The next day,