Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Star in the Forest / Laura Resau / 144 pages

    This is a very timely book about an 11 year old girl who lives in a run down trailer park in Colorado.  She is in fifth grade and wants to have friends and tries to fit in.  Her name is Zitlally and she is an illegal immigrant from Mexico.  Her family is far from rich, but they are together until that fateful day when her father is pulled over for speeding and is deported.  
    This begins to tear the family apart.  Her mother has to start two jobs and is not able to watch the kids as well.  Some men must move in to help with the rent so the family spends most of the time in the mom's bedroom.  Zitlally's older sister is absent and edging toward trouble.  Her younger sister is with a babysitter.  Zitlally is lost.  She can't focus at school.  She has no one to talk to about her father and her deep pain over his loss.
    She finds a dog chained in the junkyard behind her trailer park and this dog becomes the help for her life.  She also finds that another trailer park girl, Crystal, is a true friend despite her many issues.  This story makes a very satisfying circle where all elements tie in together by the end.
      On the author's website www.lauraresau.com There is also a teacher's guide for this book.  She is not writing out of the blue.  She spent 2 years in Oaxaca as a teacher and anthropologist and then 10 years in the southwest teaching English to immigrants.  The issue of illegal children living in the U.S. is not going to go away.  Reading this book would be a good way to start the discussion.

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