"Return to Sender" by Julia Alvarez

Alvarez, Julia (2009). Return to Sender. New York, NY: Knopf Books for Children.

2010 Pura Belpre Award Winner.

This fictional yet very realistic story is told through two interchangeable points of view. Tyler's view is seen safely from the assurance of being born in the United States and Mari tells her story through letters that can not be sent because she is always in danger of being deported back to Mexico. The story begins with Tyler's point of view as some strange dark-skinned "trespassers" come onto their land! Mari's family has come in search of a better life in the United States. Her father, her mother, and little Mari entered illegally when Mari was an infant. Soon after her two younger sisters were born in America, Mari's mother needed to return to Mexico to see her dying mother. It has been some time now since her mother should have started on her way back into the States (again illegally), but there is no sign or word of her whereabouts or welfare.

Tyler happens to find out that his parents have accepted to hire help for their failing farm in Vermont. But when Tyler finds out that the family hired might be illegal immigrants, he begins to be torn between what is truly right or wrong. When he gets to know Mari, her father, her uncles and her sisters Ofie and Lucy, immigration laws start to become very questionable after witnessing first hand how their implementation is not as justified or even as humane as he once thought.

Mari has questions of her own. Most of these are heart-wrenching questions about her mother and what has happened to her. Some are directed to the leader of this "America" which is the "land of the free." Why is it so hard to become free in America? As the story unfolds in both Tyler and Mari's lives, the danger is heightened when the questions about what happened to Mari's mother begin to slowly be answered. Help from unexpected places and from unexpected persons gives hope to both Tyler and Mari.

Alvarez brings depth to her characters with their dialogue, especially between Tyler and his family, and Mari and hers to reveal their true plight and desperation. She also gives some unexpected insight to this very controversial issue through both Tyler and Mari and also through the "villain" character Mr. Rosetti.