Return to Sender

Julia Alvarez is one of my favorite writers. She writes beautifully and reading her stories causes you to feel deeply for her characters but also their life circumstances. Everything I have read by her has more or less given me chills. After the last book that Isaac and I tried to read together but didn't finish, I became determined to find a book he'd like enough to finish. We sat on the computer one night on the library's Novelist database where you can type in the kind of book you are looking for and different titles will pop up. He wanted realistic fiction that had a good enough plot that he'd want to see it through to the end. When Julia Alvarez's Return to Sender appeared, I begged him to consider it. He read the brief synopsis, shrugged his shoulders, and agreed to give it a try. I was worried that I was pushing this book too much and that it would mean certain disaster for our chances of finishing it.

Ah, but Alvarez worked her magic and we were placed under her spell. We finished the novel last night. Isaac "really liked it" whereas I absolutely LOVED it so our responses varied, but both were positive.

The story is about Tyler, a farmer's son from Vermont whose family is faced with having to sell their dairy farm after Tyler's father almost died in a farm accident. Luckily they are able to hire Mari's father and uncles, undocumented farmers from Mexico. Marí's two younger sisters are American citizens but she is not and her family is unsure what has happened to her mother, who went back to Mexico to care for Marí's grandmother and never returned. The story is told in alternating voices-- Tyler's perspective is given in third person narrative and Marí's is through her letters and diary entries. An amazing friendship develops between the two children and much happens that made me clutch my heart. I typically do not cry when I'm reading, but there are a handful of books that have touched me so deeply that tears have sprung from my eyes and now Return to Sender is added to this list. I highly recommend this Pura Belpré and Americas award-winning book!