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Young boy racing across train tracks

Illegal: A Disappeared Book

Age Level:
YA
Published:
2020

Life in Mexico is a death sentence for Emiliano and his sister Sara. To escape the violent cartel that is after them, they flee across the border, seeking a better life in the United States and hoping that they can find a way to bring their pursuers to justice. Sara turns herself over to the authorities to apply for asylum. Emiliano enters the country illegally, planning to live with their father. But now Sara is being held indefinitely in a detention facility, awaiting an asylum hearing that may never come, finding it harder every day to hold on to her faith and hope. Life for Emiliano is not easy either. Everywhere he goes, it’s clear that he doesn’t belong. And all the while, the cartel is closing in on them. Emiliano sets off on a tense and dangerous race to find justice, but can he expose the web of crimes from his place in the shadows?

Award-winning author Francisco X. Stork’s powerful follow-up to Disappeared takes an unsparing look at the asylum process and the journey to find a new life in the US.

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Latinx Pride

In this booklist, you’ll find a range of titles — young adult novels by award-winning Hispanic-American authors, bilingual poetry, biography, memoir — celebrating Latino culture and examining the immigrant experience.