Thursday, January 6, 2011

Spotlight: Illegal by Bettina Restrepo

A promise.
Quinceañera.
A promise that we would be together on my fifteenth birthday . . .

Instead, Nora is on a desperate journey far away from home. When her father leaves their beloved Mexico in search of work, Nora stays behind. She fights to make sense of her loss while living in poverty—waiting for her father's return and a better day. When the letters and money stop coming, Nora decides that she and her mother must look for him in Texas. After a frightening experience crossing the border, the two are all alone in a strange place. Now, Nora must find the strength to survive while aching for small comforts: friends, a new school, and her precious quinceañera.

Bettina Restrepo's gripping, deeply hopeful debut novel captures the challenges of one girl's unique yet universal immigrant experience.



I am so excited for this book. As far as my limited knowledge goes there are no books for young people that detail or explain the crossing over from Mexico into America. This is a subject that I am dying to know more about and I think this book will be fabulous. It comes out in March and I hope to see it on the review link ups in March and April.


Bettina Restrepo received a BS from the University of Texas at Austin and is the author of a picture book, Moose and Magpie. She worked as an internal auditor in the Hispanic supermarket Fiesta Mart, which is portrayed in this book. There she examined firsthand the challenges in the nuances of life for illegal immigrants. Bettina lives with her family in Frisco, Texas, and is the daughter of Colombian and German immigrants.
Author Website

3 comments:

  1. This looks so interesting! FYI, I saw that Star Book Tours will have this on a one book tour (if anyone is interested). It looks like there's still room to join the tour. Here's the link.

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  2. So true that there aren't many books about crossing the border. I think Esperanza Rising brings that up and I know for sure La Linea does but that's it. I actually thought there were more but realized there actually aren't.

    I like the spotlight idea :)

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  3. I have never found anything that focuses on JUST the border crossing and the problems that surround that. I am looking forward to this one.

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