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 said “… Pulitzer 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.

Enrique's Journey for young adults reviewed on Kirkus!

Enrique’s Journey for young people, to be released next month, has received a coveted starred review from Kirkus Reviews! The review says my narrative “Provides a human face, both beautiful and scarred, for the undocumented—a must-read.” Readers, it says, will not want to miss the updated Epilogue, which “allows readers who are moved by Enrique to follow the family’s tragedies and triumphs since the book’s original publication; the journey does not end upon reaching the United States.” The new edition is for middle schoolers and reluctant readers.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sonia-nazario/enriques-journey-nazario/

Kids In Need of Defense

On April 30th, I visited New York City to speak at the Gala Dinner at Jazz at Lincoln Center for Kids In Need of Defense, a non-profit that works to find pro-bono attorneys to represent unaccompanied immigrant children. So far, they have recruited more than 5,000 attorneys nationwide. The entire board of KIND, myself included, helped ring the closing bell at the NASDAQ at 4:00 pm that afternoon in Times Square. Here are some of my favorite photos from that visit.

Victoria Kennedy introducing me as keynote speaker for the KIND gala.

Here I am ringing the NASDAQ closing bell with KIND.

Keynote Speaker at Harvard University's "Crossing Borders: Immigration and Gender in the Americas" Symposium

I recently had the privilege of speaking at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study for a conference about immigration, focusing specifically on female migrants.

I wanted to share an article about my speech from the Harvard Gazette.

The Price of Women's Migration

New York Times Op-ed on Immigrant Children in need of Legal Defense

I wanted to share broadly an opinion piece that will run in tomorrow's New York Times. It's an issue I feel passionately about and one I believe this country needs to address. 

I also wanted to share a bit of good news: Enrique's Journey, adapted for younger readers, will be out this August for junior high school students. If you know any teachers who might be interested in a preview copy, please let me know! 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/opinion/give-lawyers-to-immigrant-children.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

I did an interview today with NPR's Talk of the Nation about the use of Enrique's Journey for common reads on college campuses. We talked about, among other things, how universities are willing to teach about controversial issues like immigration.
Here is the link:
http://www.npr.org/2012/08/13/158694013/college-freshmen-learn-from-enriques-journey

Please vote!

My book, Enrique's Journey, has been nominated as one of three finalists for Denver's One Book One Denver program. 

I have seen, in many trips to Colorado, the real need for greater discussion about immigrants. If you agree a more robust, nuanced, and open discussion about immigrants would be a good thing, please take 30 seconds to vote to make Enrique's Journey the City of Denver's Book for 2012.

Voting ends June 22, 2012.

Please take a moment now to help make this happen! Ask your friends on Facebook and elsewhere to vote.

Here's the link:

http://www.denverartsinteractive.org/text/1248/entries

Thank you for your support!

Sonia Nazario