The Far Away Brothers (Adapted for Young Adults)

June 15, 2019
A young readers' adaptation of the 2017 book of the same name about El Salvadoran twins captured by Border Patrol agents while entering the United States. An exploration of the humanitarian crisis at our southern border, this book takes readers from the violent streets of El Salvador through criminal-controlled zones in Guatemala and Mexico to an illegal crossing of the Rio Grande and the pursuit of the American dream. Ernesto and Raúl Flores were teenagers who would rather have stayed home, but with their lives at risk from a gang, their father hired a smuggler to take them north. The journey was filled with danger, fear, homesickness, and the burden of knowing it would be their responsibility to pay back the loan for the coyote's fee taken out against the family's farmland. The author, a journalist with expertise in refugee issues, reminds readers how young these brothers were by exposing their immaturity, indulgences, and mistakes--a wise choice, as their humanity shines through in their failures. Never intrusive with her research, she keeps an eye on the family story while weaving in bits of history, geography, and politics. As a result, the fear and displacement the boys felt in California are both touching and educational. The informative afterword offers historical context and suggestions about what might be done to remedy the humanitarian crisis. Gets inside the heads and hearts of immigrants. (author's note, afterword, notes, index) (Nonfiction. 13-18)

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2019
Grades 7-12 Markham has adapted her own book into a version for teens that loses none of the urgency or timeliness of the original. Skillfully blending her heavy research into raw personal experiences, she tells the story of Ra�l and Ernesto Flores, identical twin brothers who escaped the clutches of MS-13 in El Salvador and made a harrowing journey to the U.S. The narrative includes accounts of economic policies that drive farmers into gangs, social policies that create animosity between people, and political policies that fuel anger and enable corporations to profit from vulnerability and loss. We learn how these policies affect real people, casting families into hopeless situations, debt, and separation. While the twins' immigration story is the focal point, Markham adds nuance by including their typical teen troubles with romance and social media, plus the perspectives of their friends and family back home, in addition to that of the person who took responsibility for them in the U.S. Visceral and informative, this is a necessary read for today's youth.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)