CCBC Booklists

CCBC Review:

Fourth grader Betita loves creating picture poems—drawings accompanied by words to capture her experiences and feelings. Her father loves telling her stories about Aztlán (the land of cranes), and likens their family to cranes flying free, their escape to the United States to flee cartel violence in Mexico a return to ancestral homelands. When Betita’s father is picked up at work and deported by ICE, Betita and her pregnant mother make the long drive to visit him at Friendship Park at the border in San Diego, only to miss the exit. Detained as undocumented immigrants trying to come back, they’re caged with other women and children on a cold floor, given silvery blankets that provide no comfort and little warmth. Lice is rampant; the food is barely edible; the guards uncaring, sometimes abusive. Betita’s mom offers support and encouragement to Betita and others, but when she’s hospitalized after frightening pregnancy complications, Betita is left alone. A lawyer working on her father’s case, a young activist who has also been detained, and a family Betitia becomes close to provide respite from that fear, as do Betita’s picture poems, which become a way for her and others to document what is happening to them. This child-centered novel in verse in Betita’s voice conveys the warmth and love of her family in early pages as vividly as the coldness of the detention center, and her fear. ©2021 Cooperative Children’s Book Center

CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 9-12
Age Range: Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10) Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Format: Novel
Subjects: 21st Century Art and Artists Families Fear Immigration and Immigrants Jail and Prison Mexicans and Mexican Americans Novels in Verse Politics and Political Systems Separation U.S. History Writers and Writing
Diversity subject: Latine

Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publish Year: 2020
Pages: 243
ISBN: 9781338343809
CCBC Location: Fiction, Salazar

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