Return to Sender

Alvarez, Julia. Return to Sender. Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. 324 pages. Tr. $16.99 ISBN-13 978-0-375-85838-3.

Summary

Written mostly in the form of letters to various people (including the Virgen de Guadalupe), Return to Sender is the story of  a young illegal immigrant living with her father two sisters and her uncles. This tale is told in a gentle eye-opening and humanizing way about immigration and the fate of the American farm. The reader joins this story as Mari and her family have just moved to Vermont in order to work on a dairy farm. The owner of this farm is in desperate need of labor and the immigrants he hires are in desperate need of work. To add to this trying situation, Mari’s mom has been missing for over a year. Her family suspects she was kidnapped near the border and there is no way for them to contact her.

Evaluation

Return to Sender is an emotionally driven, suspenseful story. It is also unapologetically pro-immigration and Alvarez uses her considerable talents as a writer to humanize every aspect of the lives of illegal immigrants in this country. Her informed reasoning is sound and compelling, but Alvarez softens the blows of her head-on confrontation with immigration laws in the United States by telling the story from the perspective of a young girl. Also included are the insights from the farmer’s son, who struggles to understand immigration from the point of view of a family farm. 

Alvarez combines English and Spanish language and traditions in such a way that each seems complimentary to each other, an idea carried throughout the story. Ages 9-12

Significance

Explaining the mixed feelings about immigration in the United States to children can be difficult. Return to Sender is an excellent vehicle to get a conversation started and to present some of the hidden difficulties in this issue that are rarely talked about.

Awards

ALA Notable Children’s Books, Older Readers 2010

Pura Belpre Award for Narrative 2010

Annotation

Hoping her missing mother will follow the trail of her letters to Vermont, 11-year-old Mari and what’s left of her family seem to be on the same path as the swallows that fly between New England and Mexico.

Links

Julia Alvarez’s Website