With recent talk about building a wall between the United States and Mexico, this middle grade novel gives the reader some insight into the hardships some immigrants go through to provide for their families.

Title: Return to Sender

Author: Julia Alvarez

Genre: contemporary realistic fiction

Age group: middle grade

This novel, labeled for ages 8-12, is told from two different perspectives.  The first part of each chapter is written in present tense from a third person limited perspective. This means that the reader “follows” the character of twelve-year-old Tyler, whose family has been farming the same land in Vermont for generations. However, after Tyler’s father is injured in a tractor accident, he is unsure if he can keep the farm going. As the story opens, Tyler learns that his father has hired three Mexican workers, one of whom is father to three daughters. The second part of each chapter is written from the perspective of the eldest of those three daughters. Her name is Mari, and each of her entries is written in the form of a letter, usually to her mother who returned to Mexico when Mari’s grandmother was dying but who has now been missing for many months. From Tyler’s perspective, we see him struggling to understand why his very patriotic family has broken the law in order to hire these three undocumented workers, and from Mari’s perspective, we see what it is like to live in constant fear of being deported. She prays often to the Virgin of Guadalupe to protect her family.

The stories of undocumented Mexican workers in the United States is important to tell, and Alvarez’s novel may help shed some light on this topic. However, I think this book could be challenging for younger readers. First, the novel is rather long at over 300 pages and a little slow at the beginning.  Also, while Mari’s letters are written in first person past tense and are easy to read, Tyler’s sections in third person limited with present tense can be very challenging to follow. Sometimes it seems like we are in Tyler’s head, and other times we are not. Present tense is a very challenging tense to pull off as a writer, and unless it is done extremely well can pull the reader out of the story. I felt myself pulled out of the story several times during the first half. On the bright side, I was happy to see that Mari’s Catholic faith as well as the Christian faith of Tyler’s grandmother are both presented positively. There’s a nice scene in which Mari and her sisters teach Tyler’s grandma about the Mexican tradition of the Day of the Dead, and this helps the grandmother to grieve over the loss of her husband who had died a few months earlier.

Also, I wish this novel would have gone further into why immigrants are unable to immigrate legally. There is a scene at a public meeting where a teacher confronts an older citizen who is against the undocumented workers. However, the teacher’s speech seems to win over the old man too easily. Often when people complain about undocumented workers, their response is “Well, if they want to live here so badly, why don’t they immigrate legally like my ancestors did?” The answer is that there is often no way for them to do it legally. However, that is not explained at all in the book. I wish the book had explained more of what this article has to say about why immigrants aren’t able to pursue the citizenship they want–or even gain legal resident status, which is a necessary precursor to applying for citizenship.