All the Stars Denied

Starred review from September 1, 2018

Gr 6 Up-A harrowing account of a lesser known episode in the United States' unseemly history of discriminatory immigration policies. Estrella del Toro is witnessing change all around her Monteseco, TX, community. Empty homes and classrooms denote the friends and neighbors being "repatriated," or deported en masse to Mexico during the 1930s, many of whom are American citizens and never lived in Mexico. The "mexicanos" who remain face bigotry from Anglo-owned businesses who refuse services and segregate sections of their town. Activism runs in Estrella's family, but after speaking out against the injustices, the authorities retaliate against the del Toro family, rounding them up, burning their ranch to the ground, and forcefully boarding them onto trains headed toward Mexico. Estrella, her mother, and toddler brother struggle to reunite with her father, navigating unjust policies and unfamiliar bureaucracies. "How vulnerable we are in this strange land," she laments. Samples from Estrella's notebook, including poems, in the form of eco-poetry, newspaper clippings, telegrams, and unsent letters are featured between chapters to document their journey and express her outrage. The treatment of Mexicanos and Depression-era rhetoric will ring disturbingly familiar to readers mindful of today's headlines. Back matter includes an author's note, recommendations for further reading, and a glossary for the Spanish phrases used throughout. VERDICT An intense and enlightening historical fiction title that's highly recommended for all libraries.-Jessica Agudelo, New York Public Library

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2018
Estrella loves poetry and the natural world, but her days of lying in the fields and writing come to a halt when she is repatriated to Mexico.Estrella's family owns Rancho las Moras--a rarity in Texas, where they are increasingly surrounded by Anglo incomers, and a safe haven, not just from the Great Depression, but from the Rangers, who are rounding up mexicanos and repatriating them to Mexico, without regard to the fact that many are actually U.S. citizens. Walking in the footsteps of her activist parents, Estrella helps to organize a protest against the treatment of the tejanos in her town of Monteseco, with devastating results. Her family quickly becomes a target for the Rangers, and Estrella finds herself in Mexico, separated from her family. Here, she begins a journey for her survival as she attempts to reunite with her family and make it home to her country of birth, the United States of America. Beautifully and poetically written, the book includes Spanish words and Mexican-American cultural elements to make it a vividly authentic mirror for some readers and a universally appealing and engaging window for others. Enhanced by excerpts from Estrella's journal, teens will get lost in the pages of this story and truly feel for the injustice the community faced during this often forgotten chapter of American history. An incredibly relevant story, now more than ever. (author's note, further reading, glossary) (Historical fiction. 12-16)

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September 15, 2018
Grades 7-10 Estrella is a feisty 15-year-old living with her parents on a ranch in southern Texas. It's 1931, and the Great Depression is in full swing. Her town is severely divided ethnically, and families of Mexican descent, though American citizens, are being rounded up and repatriated across the border. Following a protest that Estrella organizes, her home is burned, and she, her toddler brother, and mother are separated from her father while being transported to Mexico. They are thrown onto a train, forced into an open-air livestock corral for days with hundreds of others in harsh winter weather, and then taken to Mexico City, where survival is a constant challenge. However, there is always hope. Readers interested in history and current events will recognize striking similarities between events in this companion to Shame the Stars (2016) and the separation of refugee children from their parents today. Through Estrella's eloquent letters to her late grandmother and insightful poetry written in her journal, the sorrow and hardship of the ordeal is brought to light in a unique voice.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)