Dream Things True

June 8, 2015
Sixteen-year-old Alma Garcia-Menendez is a brilliant girl from a loving Mexican family living in Georgia, part of a community of undocumented immigrants. Evan Roland is the privileged son of a socialite, the nephew of a powerful senator, and a friend to boys who think sexual assault is a game. It’s love at first sight for Alma and Evan, but the threat of deportation looms for Alma and everyone in her life, thanks to the efforts of Evan’s uncle. In this YA debut, immigration activist Marquardt knowledgably takes on the plight of undocumented families in the U.S., unspooling a biting critique of anti-immigration politics. As such, her storytelling can be didactic and her characters too neatly drawn as heroes or villains. Alma’s role as the damsel in
distress, with Evan as her rescuer, can get old, and a subplot related to sexual assault doesn’t get the space it needs. But readers seeking a star-crossed love story with a twist won’t be disappointed. Ages 13–up. Agent: Jita Fumich, Folio Literary Management.

June 15, 2015
Alma and Evan are teenagers living drastically different versions of the American dream in the southern United States. Opportunity is handed to Evan. White, wealthy, and the nephew of a U.S. senator, he wants for little. However, appearances matter: the script of who he will become is written largely by what his family expects. Alma is an extremely bright student with plenty of potential, but as an undocumented immigrant, her options for life beyond high school are limited. As the unlikely pair falls in love, immigration authorities begin raiding their small Georgia town, arresting and deporting many people in Alma's community-even her family. Various aspects of undocumented immigration are explored: the economic factors influencing the decision to come to the United States, the often harrowing journey, the exploitation upon arrival, and the political factors that influence policy. However, the lack of nuance in the character development softens the power of the plot. In Evan's world of privilege, the adults and young people alike are ethically challenged and image-obsessed. Meanwhile, Alma's world is filled with suffering that it seems no amount of hard work or piety can overcome. Supporting characters fit neatly into the box of either "friend" or "foe." A flawed yet worthy examination of undocumented immigration in the American South through the lens of young love. (Fiction. 13-17)

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September 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-This teen romance centering on the drama of immigration focuses on two protagonists, Alma, a beautiful, undocumented young woman, and Evan, a privileged Southern young man, who fall in love despite class, race, and national divides. Alma struggles to manage her grades, friends at a new school, and the fear of deportation as she enters her junior year at Gilberton High School in north Georgia. After Evan helps Alma avoid a traffic accident in her father's truck, the two begin a relationship, which soon turns into an intense romance. Evan's background as the nephew of a senator with bigoted views on immigration and undocumented migrants complicates the plot as his feelings grow stronger for Alma. Ultimately, Alma's life as a undocumented teen encroaches on the teens' relationships and opportunities-forcing the two to struggle with the social and racial tensions that keep them apart. Marquardt provides a critical view of the stigmas and difficulties plaguing undocumented youth in U.S. schools without glossing over the legal realities of deportation and detainment. Readers will find the romantic aspects of Alma and Evan's relationship sweet and exciting, though there are times when Alma's body and beauty are exoticized by the male gaze (particularly the white male gaze) in tandem with stereotypes about Latina femininity. VERDICT A debut romance for libraries looking to diversify their offerings.-Marilisa Jimenez Garcia, Hunter College, New York City

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September 15, 2015
Grades 9-12 Alma has dreamed of going to college, but helping care for her aunt's children and working at her father's landscaping business get in the way. The son of one of her father's clients, Evan is a senior at the local high school and a soccer star with a bright future. Normally, they would have never met, but one day he jumps into her father's truck to save it from rolling out into the street, and their attraction is instantaneousand inconvenient. Evan is the nephew of a senator who is a vocal proponent of a catch and return program to deport immigrants without legal papers and Alma and her family are all undocumented. As their lives become entwined, they have to make decisions about how they can make their dreams come true. Drawing on her work with immigrants detained at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, Marquardt has written a book with a hopeful, if not happy, ending, filled with stark details about life in the U.S. for undocumented families. Eye-opening and touching.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)