The Maldonado Miracle

by Theodore Taylor

Twelve-year-old Jose Maldonado used to dream of becoming a fine artist. But this son of a poor Mexican farmer now focuses on survival, not art. After Jose’s mother died, his father left to work in the United States, leaving Jose on his own in Mexico. When it’s time for father and son to reunite, things go terribly wrong. Jose’s attempt to cross the border is harrowing, and his stay at a migrant worker camp turns into a nightmare, forcing him to flee for his life. Hiding out in a church seems a wise thing to do—until the blood dripping from his wounded shoulder lands on a statue of Christ. Now everyone thinks the statue itself is bleeding. Jose’s accidental “miracle” kick-starts a media frenzy—and threatens the future of an entire town. Theodore Taylor's riveting story of faith and desperation inspired the September 2003 Showtime movie The Maldonado Miracle, directed by Salma Hayek.

168 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1986

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

a young boy Jose and his dog Sanchez make their way across the boarder into the United States. Jose’s mother passed away due to cancer a couple years ago. Jose’s dad is a wetback and works in the fields as a farmer. The land he farmed on was bought and he no longer had work so he traveled to the US in order to find work. His father had someone spent for him to take him to meet him. Along the way he had to dig under the boarder’s fence. When he was taken to the place his father was suppose to be. He was informed that his father was elsewhere but to be coming back within 2 weeks. Jose was given the chance to stay and work with little pay. His roommate was a teacher and was studying immigrants in order to write a book about the unfairness. As time passed an American attacked Jose and his dog bite his arm forcing Jose to leave with his dog. On the move Jose stumbled onto a small town and fell over a big object leading him to fall on top of a sharp object on his shoulder. He took shelter in a church and spend the night there. In the morning he awoke when someone visited early in the morning and screamed at the sight of blood on the statue of Jesus. Jose’s bliss from his shoulder had fallen onto the statue leading everyone to think a miracle had happened in their small town. This make news headlines and people came just to see the “miracle”. Jose felt bad and eventually came clean about the situation. Jose and his father were reunited shortly afterwards. { this book was all over the place and it didn’t feel like it was complete. lots of new characters were introduced and it was very hard distinguishing them apart. also don’t know what was up with the creepy American that was grabbing Jose. It just wasn’t my style of story or story telling }

[Lis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very different, but also interesting. It was nice to read something with a smattering of spanish involved in the text. I thought the storyline was a bit odd and somewhat lacking of an actual audience of interest in it.

[Cody · Rating 2 out of 5]

A great book which displayed how many people really feel, and how many people really are.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really liked this book cause of the end, it was different from what I expected!

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't as good as I thought it would be.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is about a boy who is really poor and his mother dies. Then his father goes to america and the boy is sent to america to find his father. He gets into so much problems too.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it but the Spanish translations were a bit much at my age at the time

[Susan Parodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Will be using in 6th grade class along with showtime movie