Tag Archives: Asylum Seeker

YA – Borderless

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De Leon, Jennifer. Borderless. Caitlyn Dlouhy Book/Atheneum, 2023. 978-1-665-90416-2. 328 p. $19.99. Grades 9-12.

Sixteen-year-old Maya Silva has a promising career as a fashion designer at Salome’ Fashion Institute in Guatemala City. Her best friend Lizbeth is supportive, even when Maya makes the list to show her work at the big fashion show and she does not. Winning would help Maya and Mama make a new start away from the corruption and violence of their avenida. When Lizbeth meets Oscar, Maya keeps her suspicions about Lizbeth’s new boyfriend being a gang member to herself. After school one day, Oscar introduces Maya to his handsome cousin, Sebastian, who has recently been deported from America. He and Maya connect, making it harder for Maya to extricate herself from a situation that she senses could be dangerous. In an ether of young love, she makes bad decisions: inviting Oscar and Sebastian to her house, hanging out with Sebastian when she should be home, persuading Mama to hold off moving to the safer, sleepy hometown of San Marcos. The busy-ness of preparing for the fashion show mounts. Then, the unspeakable happens. Maya witnesses a tragedy that puts her and her mother’s lives in jeopardy. The only alternative to survive is to make the perilous crossing to the United States. Author Jennifer De Leon captures the language and conflicting feelings of a teen caught between a rock and a hard place. Borderless brings home the desperation of living in a neighborhood ruled by gangs and the harshness of being an undocumented migrant in a detention center, but the book has the rush of first love and the bustle of Project Runway. Readers can be enticed by the fashion, yet come away with compassion for asylum seekers.

THOUGHTS: DeLeon has an ear for the way young people talk, so even though the story takes place in Guatemala and all the characters are speaking Spanish, the dialogue is relatable and fresh, with some Spanish words thrown in. Maya’s relationship with her mother is endearing and authentic, and it’s nice that her best friend stays loyal till the end. Maya and Sebastian are in love and do some making out, but Sebastian is the one who shuts down any further sexual activity. Including a fashion design competition lightens the tone. This interesting touch counters the heaviness of the violence and danger infringing on the lives of Maya’s neighborhood. In one brutal scene, she sees Oscar shoot her neighbor’s son, execution style. Fear and anxiety heighten as Maya escapes to the United States, and remain as she lives in the horrendous conditions and uncertainty of the detention center and when she is separated from her beloved mother. The tension in this book is palpable, but the fashion aspect makes it familiar.

Realistic Fiction

MG – Santiago’s Road Home

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Diaz, Alexandra. Santiago’s Road Home. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2020. 978-1-534-44623-6. $17.99. 325 p. Grades 5-8.

Once more author Alexandra Diaz raises our consciousness about the plight of Central American immigrants in our country at this critical time. As she did in The Only Road and Crossroads, Diaz gives a fact-based novel of Santiago Garcia Reyes’s escape from domestic abuse in Mexico through the desert to the detention centers of New Mexico. She does not pull any punches describing the sacrifices and suffering Santiago endures as he makes his way to America with newfound “family” Maria Dolores and her five-year-old daughter, Alegria. After being thrown out once again from a relative’s home where he worked as a free babysitter, Santiago refuses to return to his abusive, neglectful grandmother. Instead, he makes the acquaintance of the kind and generous Maria Dolores and her young daughter and convinces her to take him as they migrate to the United States where Maria Dolores’s sister owns a restaurant. For the first time since his Mami died when he was five-years-old, Santiago feels loved and cared for; and he reciprocates by being the protective big brother. By working in the cheap tavern at the crossroads, he discovers Dominquez, the best coyote to help them cross. Unfortunately, rival coyotes kill Dominquez, leaving the refugees abandoned just shy of the border. Diaz describes the arduous and dangerous journey through the desert, dodging border patrol officers and experiencing dehydration and hunger under a blistering sun. Their efforts end in hospitalization and detention. Again, Diaz intertwines facts and realistic representation about the conditions children suffer in the detention centers, yet maintains both the negative and positive aspects. Some of the detention center guards are kind; some are arrogant brutes. Minor characters like an interested teacher and volunteering lawyers give the story balance. The distress and maltreatment of Santiago as he lingers in detention as well as his brave struggle to belong to a loving family is heart wrenching and sure to instill empathy and compassion toward a timely situation. Includes a glossary of Spanish terms and extensive resources.

THOUGHTS: Diaz’s writing has a way of creating a fully developed character and a well-rounded setting that arouses true sympathy in readers. This book can provide a reference point to discussions of undocumented immigrants, refugees, migration to America as well as current events around asylum seekers and their reasons for immigration.

Realistic Fiction          Bernadette Cooke, School District of Philadelphia