November 10, 2008
After Tyler’s father’s accident, his family hires undocumented Mexican workers in a last-ditch effort to keep their Vermont farm. Despite his reservations, Tyler soon bonds with a worker’s daughter, who is in his sixth-grade class. His problems seem small compared to Mari’s: her family fears deportation, and her mother has been missing since re-entering the States months ago. While this novel is certainly issue-driven, Alvarez (Before We Were Free
) focuses on her main characters, mixing in Mexican customs and the touching letters that Mari writes to her mother, grandmother and even the U.S. president. Readers get a strong sense of Tyler’s growing maturity, too, as he navigates complicated moral choices. Plot developments can be intense: Mari’s uncle lands in jail, and her mother turns out to have been kidnapped and enslaved during her crossing. Some characters and sentiments are over-the-top, but readers will be moved by small moments, as when Tyler sneaks Mari’s letter to her imprisoned uncle, watching as the man puts his palm on the glass while Tyler holds up the letter from the other side. A tender, well-constructed book. Ages 8–12.
November 15, 2008
Tyler is the son of generations of Vermont dairy farmers. Mari is the Mexican-born daughter of undocumented migrant laborers whose mother has vanished in a perilous border crossing. When Tyler 's father is disabled in an accident, the only way the family can afford to keep the farm is by hiring Mari 's family. As Tyler and Mari 's friendship grows, the normal tensions of middle-school boy-girl friendships are complicated by philosophical and political truths. Tyler wonders how he can be a patriot while his family breaks the law. Mari worries about her vanished mother and lives in fear that she will be separated from her American-born sisters if la migra comes. Unashamedly didactic, Alvarez 's novel effectively complicates simple equivalencies between what 's illegal and what 's wrong. Mari 's experience is harrowing, with implied atrocities and immigration raids, but equally full of good people doing the best they can. The two children find hope despite the unhappily realistic conclusions to their troubles, in a story which sees the best in humanity alongside grim realities. Though it lacks nuance, still a must-read. (Fiction. 9-11)
(COPYRIGHT (2008) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
February 1, 2009
Gr 4-7-Sixth-grader Tyler Paquette lives in a dairy-farming community in Vermont. His father was injured in a tractor accident and must now turn to undocumented Mexican laborers to run the farm. Thus, a trailer on the property soon becomes home to the Cruz familysixth-grader Mari, her two younger sisters, father, and two uncles, all needing work to survive and living with fear of "la migra". They have had no word on Mari's mother, missing now for several months. Tyler and Mari share an interest in stargazing, and their extended families grow close over the course of one year with holiday celebrations and shared gatherings. Third-person chapters about Tyler alternate with Mari's lengthy, unmailed letters to her mother and diary entries. Touches of folksy humor surface in the mismatched romance of Tyler's widowed Grandma and cranky Mr. Rossetti. When "coyotes" contact Mr. Cruz and set terms for his wife's freedom, Tyler secretly loans the man his savings, then renegotiates a promised birthday trip in order to accompany Mari to North Carolina to help rescue her abused mother. When immigration agents finally raid the farm and imprison both Cruz parents, it signals an end to the "el norte" partnership, but not the human connections. This timely novel, torn right from the newspaper headlines, conveys a positive message of cooperation and understanding."Susan W. Hunter, Riverside Middle School, Springfield, VT"
Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
December 1, 2008
Grades 6-9 With quiet drama, Alvarez tells a contemporary immigration story through the alternating viewpoints of two young people in Vermont.After 11-year-old Tyler'sfatherisinjured in a tractor accident, the family is in danger of losing their dairy farm.Desperate for help, Tylers familyemploys Maris family, who are illegal migrant Mexican workers. Mari writesheartrending letters and diary entries, especially about Mam, who has disappeared during a trip to Mexico to visit Mari's dying abuelita. Is Mam in the hands of the border-crossing coyotes? Have they hurt her? Will Homeland Security (la migra) raid the farm? The plot is purposive, with messages about the historical connectionsbetween migrant workers today andthe Indians displacement, the Underground Railroad, and earlier immigrants seeking refuge. But the young peoples voices make for a fast read; the characters, including the adults, are drawn with real complexity; and the questions raised about the meaning of patriotism will spark debate.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)
July 1, 2009
After an accident injures Tyler's father, their farm is in danger of folding--until a family of Mexican immigrants (some illegal) comes to help. Tyler befriends Mari, the oldest daughter, and helps the family reunite with Mari's mother, to whom Mari writes heartfelt letters. The various relationships are complicated and nuanced, and the issues Alvarez raises will give readers pause.
(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
November 15, 2008
Tyler is the son of generations of Vermont dairy farmers. Mari is the Mexican-born daughter of undocumented migrant laborers whose mother has vanished in a perilous border crossing. When Tyler's father is disabled in an accident, the only way the family can afford to keep the farm is by hiring Mari's family. As Tyler and Mari's friendship grows, the normal tensions of middle-school boy-girl friendships are complicated by philosophical and political truths. Tyler wonders how he can be a patriot while his family breaks the law. Mari worries about her vanished mother and lives in fear that she will be separated from her American-born sisters if la migra comes. Unashamedly didactic, Alvarez's novel effectively complicates simple equivalencies between what's illegal and what's wrong. Mari's experience is harrowing, with implied atrocities and immigration raids, but equally full of good people doing the best they can. The two children find hope despite the unhappily realistic conclusions to their troubles, in a story which sees the best in humanity alongside grim realities. Though it lacks nuance, still a must-read. (Fiction. 9-11)
(COPYRIGHT (2008) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)