Dreamers: An Immigrant Generation's Fight for Their American Dream (Compact Disc)
Fall 2018 Kids Indie Next List
“This beacon of a picture book, which illustrates the story of the author's own journey to the United States with her two-month-old son, emphatically asserts that immigrants belong in this country, no matter the political rhetoric that claims the opposite. Morales verbally encapsulates the range of emotions that arise on such a journey in text that is concise and intelligible to young readers. Visually, the intricately handcrafted mixed media elements overlaid on atmospheric backgrounds lend a sense of beauty to even the most trying and disconsolate moments of the story. Another award-worthy tour-de-force from a storyteller in her prime.”
— Niki Marion, Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park, WA
In 1994, twenty-five-year-old Yuyi Morales traveled from her home in Yelapa, Mexico, to the San Francisco Bay Area with her two-month-old son, Kelly, in order to secure permanent residency in this country. Her passage was not easy, and she spoke no English whatsoever. But due in large measure to help and guidance provided by area children's librarians, she learned English the same way her young son learned to read: through the picture books they shared together. In spare, lyrical verse and with the vibrant images for which she has become legendary, Yuyi has created a lasting testament to the journeys, both physical and metaphorical, that she and Kelly have taken together in the intervening years. Beautiful and powerful at any time-but given particular urgency as the status of our own Dreamers becomes uncertain-this is a story that is both topical and timeless.
