After Santiago is kicked out of his unloving aunt's home in Mexico, he meets young mother Maria Dolores and her small daughter, Alegria. The little girl immediately takes to Santiago and Maria Dolores is too kind to leave Santiago to fend for himself. She invites him to join them on their journey to El Norte. They find a coyote to take them across the border from Mexico into the United States, but greed and power dynamics among the coyotes leads to a violent attack, and the three end up stranded in the desert. They're in desperate condition when a U.S. immigration patrol picks them up. Maria Dolores is hospitalized, and Santiago and Alegria are separated at a youth detention center. Over the next six months, Santiago's sadness at losing the first people who truly felt like family turns to despair at believing they've deserted him after he discovers Alegria has been released. He makes a few friends during that time, and is singled out for his bright mind by an educator who teaches him to read. Still, living conditions are bleak and there are incidents of abuse and humiliation by the guards and bullying by some older boys. This wrenching look at the desperate conditions-physical, emotional, psychological-inside an immigrant detention center ends with relief and happiness for Santiago, but makes clear not every child there is as fortunate or resilient as he is. (Ages 9-12)

Three starred reviews!
“Harrowing but deeply illuminating.” —School Library Journal

A young boy gets detained by ICE while crossing the border from Mexico to the United States in this timely and unflinching novel by award-winning author Alexandra Diaz.

The bed creaks under Santiago’s shivering body. They say a person’s life flashes by before dying. But it’s not his whole life. Just the events that led to this. The important ones, and the ones Santiago would rather forget.

The coins in Santiago’s hand are meant for the bus fare back to his abusive abuela’s house. Except he refuses to return; he won’t be missed. His future is uncertain until he meets the kind, maternal María Dolores and her young daughter, Alegría, who help Santiago decide what comes next: He will accompany them to el otro lado, the United States of America. They embark with little, just backpacks with water and a bit of food. To travel together will require trust from all parties, and Santiago is used to going it alone. None of the three travelers realizes that the journey through Mexico to the border is just the beginning of their story.