89 pages • 2 hours read
Francisco JiménezCajas de Carton
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1996A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
“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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By Francisco Jiménez
