Gr 7 Up—Undocumented siblings Valentina and Ernesto confront life-threatening dangers as they try to get from the
East Coast to California, a sanctuary state. Set in the near future, many elements of the story—border walls, raids,
abusive human smugglers—already exist today. Rooted in Mendoza's work with undocumented people, this chilling
narrative is a realistic exploration of the diversity and trauma of undocumented immigrant experiences.

Trigger warnings for sexual assault, sexual harrassment, racism, murder, violence and child death. When I first read this, I kept crying and my hands shook a few times. I rated it four stars and had no idea where to begin on review, so I didn't. Now, I cautiously checked it out again, and took a day to prepare myself psychologically. This is an incredibly important read. I'm so glad it's widely distributed and I got to read it. The rest of my opinion is absolutely a "me" thing. The book opens up with a teenager walking across the border into a future USA, and she steps on a landmine. Such a powerful and tragic beginning! Surely it will be a theme. It...is never mentioned again beyond a few pages of the first chapter, and that's in the vein of "how sad. Let me go into exposition." The exposition would have been smoothly done, but here it was jarring. The way the teen was described as walking across the border was spread out over paragraphs of the narrator thinking. It made the teenager seem like she was waaaaaaalllllkinnnggggg acrosssss the borrrderrrr with no cares in the word, instead of a terrifying fifteen steps that Vali, the narrator, said it was. Fifteen steps while Vali, the narrator, was thinking so much! Ugh. Poorly done.

The book launches into emotions and dystopia immediately after the narrator stops thinking so much. Great! Wow. I'm liking this story and the world-building is chilling. My problem was that there were hunks of paragraphs with a sentence of action or dialogue, and I disliked the style. This continued throughout. In some cases, it fit incredibly well and I welcomed it. In others, it was, "Wow. Vali sure has a lot of time to think while all this stuff is going on." The details were so well done in this, and the plot, stakes, and obstacles were fantastic. I dislike "wandering in the wilderness" stories, and this one was that. I hadn't remembered it as taking up so much of the book, but it did, and I knocked off a star. On second read....I don't know why, but I was less emotional. I was sad. I was freakin' sad, and had to set the book aside nearly a dozen times so I could just...breathe. I needed to just breathe and try not to despair. I'm reading a book. These characters and circumstances are fictional, but they feel so real. But the first time, I had to set aside the book twice. I remember thinking I might not even finish it since I was so distressed. Now, I resolved to finish it that night. I did. I had forgotten several things in the second half of the book, so it was like going through them again for the first time. The ending was--it felt realistic. It felt "yes, that would happen in this story." I would have been pleased with the consistency had I not been still feeling a sense of dread and emptiness.

My compliments to the authors. When I fully recover emotionally, I'm curious to check out their other works, separately and together. ( )

Vali and her parents came to the US after leaving Colombia. Since arriving in California, conditions for the undocumented deteriotriated. A Deportation Force was established, everyone with papers had to be chipped, and life becomes more and more dangerous for the family. In 2032, after her Papi has already been disappeared and her mother is taken, Vali and her younger brother try to get across the country to California, a place that has agreed to offer sanctuary. It's a harrowing journey and the obstacles put in place by the government of the United States are horrific and oddly familiar.
Vali's determination and perserverence in the face of tremendous struggle and obstacles made me want to see her story through to the end. ( )

A dystopian America is headed by a Trump-like president who has it out for the "illegals" who are "ravaging" the country, employing a brutal Deportation Force to round them up. Vali and her mother, refugees from Colombia, have lived under the radar with their counterfeit ID chips. When California secedes from the nation Vali's family knows it is time to flee Vermont to find sanctuary. The journey however is hard and tragic. A dark interpretation of recent events that hones in on the humanity we all need to recognize. ( )

RGG: Yes, another horror story of being undocumented. And despite being futuristic, it's so spot on to today's political environment that it's unnervingly realistic. But also an absolute page-turner. Mendoza and Sher figured out how to concisely convey a story with well-developed characters, a sensical plot, and a realistic ending. Reading Interest: 13-YA.