Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Please help spread the word: Enrique's Journey for Young Adults will be published next Tuesday.





ENRIQUE’S  JOURNEY
The True Story Of A Boy Determined To Reunite With His Mother



(Adapted For Young People)
By
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist
Sonia Nazario




I’m excited that something I spent a lot of time working on--the Young Adult version of Enrique’s Journey--will be published next week and it has already received terrific reviews.

Kirkus gave the book its prestigious starred review and said, … [It] provides a human face, both beautiful and scarred, for the undocumented—a must-read.”

Booklist saidPulitzer Prize–winning journalist Nazario offers young readers a compelling account of a modern-day immigration odyssey…. This powerfully written survival story personalizes the complicated, pervasive, and heart-wrenching debates about immigration and immigrants’ rights and will certainly spark discussion in the classroom and at home.”

The School Library Journal said, “…Nazario offers a compelling account of a young man’s brave efforts to find the parent he had not seen in 10 years, and that reunion’s complex, unforeseen consequences. The journey tells the larger story of undocumented Latin American migrants in the United States…. Exploring important issues of immigration on both a personal and global scale, this title would be a valuable addition to young adult collections.

The previous edition has really inspired discussion and helped change conversations about immigration. I am hoping this book will do the same for middle schoolers and Reluctant Readers in high schools.

If you know any middle school, high school, or other educators who might be interested, please pass this press release and your recommendation along to them.

2 comments:

Melanie said...

Hello Sonia! Do you think you can help me with a question I have about the book?

Bev Freeman said...

Sonia, I have read "refugees at our door." I am working with RAICES (raicestexas.org) which is taking the moral leadership on this issue you so poignantly documented; their staff see and lives these issues every day. They are taking on the moral leadership with regard to this huge problem - the question you posed at the end of your article. Jonathan Ryan is exec. director there. They have information about a large majority of the asylum seekers as they arrive Texas, even before legal representation knows about them. As you know some families don't get good legal help. RAICES is changing that as well as applying for a grant to put a case manager in Houston - to link all helping organizations to directly helping all the asylum seeking children and families. A large majority have just been released from detention at Karnes and Dilley prisons. If you have questions please reach me. I would appreciate your attention to this potentially very "positive" turn of events - which definitely needs more community-based support.