Starred Review From Booklist!

So honored that Booklist has given a starred review to The Distance Between Us, Young Readers Edition!

 

The Distance between Us: Young Readers Edition. Grande, Reyna (author).

Sept. 2016. 336p. illus. Aladdin, hardcover, $17.99 (9781481463713). Grades 5-8. 973.
REVIEW. First published September 1, 2016 (Booklist).


Reyna’s parents have moved to El Otro Lado (The Other Side) and have left her behind. In this young readers edition of her memoir, Grande writes about a difficult time in her childhood when her parents moved to the U.S. and she stayed behind in Iguala, Mexico, with her older siblings. Grande shares a timely story of a transnational family and the economic and emotional hardships she endured—such as not being adequately taken care of by her grandmother and being called an “orphan” by other children. While her parents have left in search of work, Reyna just wants her family back together and does not entirely understand why they had to leave in the first place. Readers will be captivated by Grande’s beautiful and heart-wrenching story, from her detailed inner thoughts to the descriptions of the environment around her. Her longing to reconnect with her father, whom she refers to as the “man behind the glass,” because she only knows him through an old framed photograph, is one readers will avidly follow. Grande’s memoir offers an important account of the many ways immigration impacts children. Similar stories that touch on themes of immigration and family include the young-adult adaptation of Sonia Nazario’s Enrique’s Journey (2013) and Margarita Engle’s Enchanted Air(2015).— Sonia Alejandra Rodríguez
 

Reyna Grande