Explore Immigration with My Diary from Here to There

The following was originally written on the Latin Baby Book Club. 

My Diary from Here to There 
by Amada Irma Pérez
illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez

With immigration reform such a hot topic nationally, I wanted to share this book with you. If you haven't read it, you should. It has personalized the issue for my children in a way that I'm not sure I could have done just by explaining what is being discussed on the news.

A Children's Picture Book on the Immigration Experience

My Diary from Here to There is actually based on the author's own true story. Pérez chronicles her own childhood experience of leaving her home in Ciudad Juárez after her father loses his job. To support the family, he decides to move them to California. But as he leaves to find work, Amada and her brothers and mother must stay with relatives. The book gives us an intimate look at Amada's thoughts and emotions, as she writes passages in her diary. It is immediately apparent that she enjoys a close and tender relationship with her father, who she thinks about daily, anxiously awaiting his letters while he is gone looking for work.

Gonzalez's illustrations are vibrant and active. You can see and feel the wind whipping Amada's hair back as they get in their car and drive away from home. And when she curls up under her blankets to write in her diary by flashlight, you can feel her soft socks and the warmth coming from her sleeping brother.

The book includes full text in both English and Spanish. It is best suited for children ages 4 and older.

I am really glad to see more and more Latino children's authors, sharing their own immigrations stories in books for children. What a valuable lesson they provide, helping to humanize an otherwise cold topic.

Parents and teachers, this is a great book to read when studying immigration, family relationships, leaving home, family responsibility, and more.

Purchase your copy here:

Other Posts About Immigration

• Studying the Immigration Experience with Children
  
  
• 10 Children’s Books About the Latino Immigration Experience
  
  
• Mamá the Alien, Mamá la extraterrestre Review, & Download
  
  
• Understanding the Child Migrant Crisis

New Book Reviews on the LBBC

Hi, Everyone.

Just wanted to remind you that our sister site, the Latin Baby Book Club, has some new book reviews up this month, including Escucha Means Listen, Jungle Tales, and Tamalitos: A Cooking Poem. As part of our commitment to our movement Latinas for Latino Children's Literature, we are venturing into eBooks, as well as print books. I want to especially call your attention to the book, Jungle Tales, by Horacio Quiroga as this book is required reading for most elementary students throughout Latin America. It is now available in English for the first time. We have LOVED reading it, but make sure you read the review as there are a couple of things parents should consider before buying the book.

I'm happy to be focusing on the LBBC once again (last year most book reviews were published here on MommyMaestra instead). But I do want to put out a call to you for submissions. If you have a favorite book that falls under the category of Latino children's literature, we'd love for you to write up a short piece sharing your thoughts on the book so that other Latino parents might benefit and purchase it if they so choose. You can enter the title in the search bar on the LBBC to see if we've already posted a review. And if you'd like to submit one, just contact me.

Un abrazo...