Return To Sender

Alvarez, Julia (2009). Return to Sender. New York, New York: Alfred A Knopf.
In this Pura Belpre award winning book, Julia Alvarez gives a voice to those that have no voice. This book is set in present day Vermont on a family farm that has been in the family for six generations, yet due to the economic times that we live in, the family is in danger of losing their farm that they love. In desperation, they hire Mexican workers. The Vermont farm family does not ask too many questions about the family's legal status. Like so many Mexican laborers, some of the members of the family are in the US illegally, and the youngest two members of the family were born here, making them citizens living in the only country that they know. I find this to be a very timely book, and a good one for beginning a discussion on immigration. Lately there is a lot of talk about "anchor babies". While we all know that there are a lot of immigrants playing the system, there are also a lot of citizens playing the system too, yet there is not the anger directed at them like is directed at immigrants. This book was sad, yet filled me with hope. I would love to see books such as this used to start a national discussion.