• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2019 April #2
  When 12-year-old Orly travels from Houston to the border town of Brownsville to visit his godmother, Nina, he discovers a secret: she is hiding Daniel, a Mexican boy his age who has crossed the border illegally, hoping to be reunited with his father, who is living in Chicago. Though wary of each other at first, the two boys bond, Orly wondering what it must be like to be illegal not because you've done something you're not supposed to, but simply because you want to be safe with your family. But speaking of family: Nina's heartless brother, Beto, is suspicious and resolutely determined to find out what his sister is up to. Nearly discovered by Beto, Daniel flees; but where can he go? Can he possibly make it to Chicago on his own? In this gentle novel, Cásares has done a beautiful job of answering Orly's questions for the reader, creating a vivid portrait of a boy caught between two worlds. The story is a necessary exercise in empathy at a time when there is too little for the Daniels of the world. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.

OSCAR CÁSARES is the author of Brownsville, a collection of stories that was an American Library Association Notable Book of 2004, and is now included in the curriculum at several American universities, and the novel Amigoland. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Copernicus Society of America, and the Texas Institute of Letters. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he teaches creative writing at the University of Texas in Austin, where he lives.