Book Review for RETURN TO SENDER by Julia Alvarez

Book Review by Allie Davis

MLIS 5653 Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alvarez, Julia. 2009. Return to Sender. New York: Yearling. ISBN 9780375851230

Connect with the Author 
https://www.juliaalvarez.com/

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
      In Julia Alvarez's Pura Belpre Award winning novel, Return to Sender, readers will be transported into the lives of the illegal immigrant Cruz family who have traveled to Vermont to help the Paquette family save their dairy farm after a tragic accident limits the use of Mr. Paquette's right arm.  The novel is told from two main perspectives.  Mari, the oldest Cruz daughter, has learned that writing how she feels helps her deal with her emotions, and through a series of letters, her and her family's story is told.  The other perspective is from Tyler, the Paquette's youngest child, who is Mari's age.  His story is simply told in third-person limited voice.  Between the two perspectives, a beautiful story of friendship, compassion, and acceptance is born. 
     The dynamic characters of Mari and Tyler are fully developed and culturally authentic.  Alvarez is especially effective in developing Mari and her two sisters.  Mari is an illegal "alien" while her younger siblings are American citizens.  Her letters help the reader develop an emotional tie with what Mari goes through as the oldest child who has to take care of her sisters when her mother doesn't return from her trip to Mexico.  They are not stereo-typed in any way, rather through their stories and experiences, the reader learns about foods, holidays, and the Mexican culture in general.  Through those stories, the reader learns about the Day of the Dead, Posadas, Three King's Day, and how the family unit works in Mexico.  We learn how the farms in Mexico denigrated and about the coyotes, or the smugglers, who work to transport the ones who are brave enough to across the border into America.  What I especially appreciated is that all of the names and Spanish words within the text of the book are accurately spelled.  Alvarez takes great care to make sure accents are correct as is the spelling.  
     Although less detailed, Tyler's story is no less intriguing.  We see a child who has been taught to follow the laws of the land his entire life.  He is confused when his family hires the illegals and feels angry that they have betrayed their values.  At first, he pushes Mari and her family away, but when their teacher at school, Mr. Bicknell, begins teaching cultural acceptance and the history of Vermont immigration, Tyler's views change, and he becomes close friends with Mari and her family, close enough that he is even willing to break the law himself and sneak a letter into the jail to Mari's uncle who is eventually deported back to Mexico.  
     The setting of the Paquette family farm is in Vermont although the Cruz family has previously been working odd jobs in North Carolina, or Carolina del Norte, as Mari calls it in the beginning.  North Carolina is where the Cruz family is first split apart.  Mari's grandmother dies, and her mother travels back to Mexico.  When she tries to reenter America, the family loses contact with her, and she is gone for over a year before they are reunited.  Her disappearance acts as the main conflict for the Cruz family while the possible loss of the family farm is the conflict faced by the patrons (White people).  The conflicts intertwine when the Cruz family chooses to leave North Carolina to work at the Paquette farm in an effort to help save it from being foreclosed on by the bank.  The Cruzes must leave the only place their mother knows to look for them, and the Paquettes must accept help from others for the first time in generations.  
       Cultural differences between the two families are abundant.  Alvarez does a fine job of portraying the differences in working for survival and having a career in which one works.  During the merging of the two cultures, there are well-described moments of awkwardness. For example, the Cruz daughters struggle with American idioms such as "Bother? Are you kidding? You guys are lifesavers! None of the girls knew the word for lifesaver in Spanish.  'It's like a candy,' Luby tried" (p. 32).  Another example is when Grandma Paquette says, "He would have been tickled by you girls" (p. 93).  They take this statement literally and are shocked that anyone would physically tickle an elder.  It is obvious, throughout the story, that the Mexican culture has a deep regard for their elders.
      Mari, herself, struggles in a few places with her own sort of prejudice.  She has been ridiculed and bullied by two White boys, and in contemplating a life or death situation, she questions why Tyler would want to save them.  She says, "Later, I was shocked to think I wanted to leave those two boys out...just like I'm being left out of this country" (p. 64).  Language barriers between the two families are fixed through translators, and as Alvarez says in a closing section entitled "A Word About the Spanish in English," the impossible is possible...There are no borders.  Like swallows, like stars, you don't have to stop where one country or language or race or religion or gender or time periods ends and another begins" (p.323).  Besides the interlingual mixture of English and Spanish words in the text, the readers also understand that Mari's letters to her family are in Spanish, even though we read them in English.  
       In my opinion, overall, the deeply emotional themes presented in Return to Sender are dealt with in a honest simplicity that children of all ages will be able to connect with.  Discrimination, bullying, deportation, and friendship are all explored, and Alvarez does an excellent job of describing the "alien" view point that few other authors have attempted to convey.  She weaves together the emotional strains of the children who are born of both worlds, and Mari sums it up best when she writes in her letter to the United States president, "But because, as Mr. B. says, we are all citizens of one planet, indivisible with liberty and justice for all, I will turn toward where you live in your beautiful white house, Mr. President. '!Viva los Estados Unidos del Mundo!' I will cry out to myself. 'Long live the United States of the World!'"

AWARDS  

• Georgia Children's Books Award; Nominated for Award in 2011 
• Pura Belpre Award; Won Award in 2006
• SCASL Book Award; Nominated for Award in 2010
• Americas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature; Won Award in 2010
• Coretta Scott King Honor Book

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

• Horn Book Guide, "After an accident injures Tyler's father, their farm is in danger of folding --until a family of Mexican immigrants (some illegal comes to help. Tyler befriends Mari, the oldest daughter, and helps the family reunite with Mari's mother, to whom Mari writes heartfelt letters.  The various relationships are complicated and nuanced, and the issues Alvarez raises will give readers pause." (C) October 2, 2009
• Booklist, "...After 11-year-old Tyler's father is injured in a tractor accident, the family is in danger of losing their dairy farm. Desperate for help, Tyler's family employs Mari's family, who are illegal migrant workers. Mari writes heartening letters and dairy entries, especially about Mama, who has disappeared during a trip to Mexico to visit Mari's dying abuelita. Is Mama in the hands of the border-crossing coyotes? Have they hurt her?  Will Homeland Security (la migra) raid the farm? The plot is purposive, with messages about the historical connections between migrant workers today and the Indians' displacement, the Underground Railroad, and earlier immigrants seeking refuge.  But the young people's voices make for a fast read; the characters, including the adults, are drawn with real complexity; and the questions raised about the meaning of patriotism will spark debate." (C) Dec. 1, 2008
• Publishers Weekly,  "... Despite his reservations, Tyler soon bonds with a worker's daughter, who is in his sixth-grade class.  His problems seem small compared to Mari's:  her family fears deportation, and her mother has been missing since re-entering the States months ago. While this novel is certainly issue-driven, Alvarez focuses on her main characters, mixing in Mexican customs and the touching letters that Mari writes to her mother, grandmother and even the U.S. president. Readers get a strong sense of Tyler's growing maturity, too, as he navigates complicated moral choices.  Plot development can be intense: Mari's uncle lands in jail, and her mother turns out to have been kidnapped and enslaved during her crossing.  (C) November 10, 2008.

CONNECTIONS

Use as an introduction to family, accidents, fear, emotional trauma, migrant workers, poverty, Homeland Security, deportation, Mexico, swallows, constellations, and friendship.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Return-To-Sender-Alvarez-Novel-Unit-Grades-5-8-642192
https://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?a=1&tid=16302
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/return-to-sender-by-julia-alvarez/
https://teachinglatinamericathroughliterature.wordpress.com/return-to-sender-2/

• Discuss civil disobedience with students and connect with Civil Disobedience by Thoreau.
• Divide the class into groups and debate the pros and cons of immigration points mentioned in the novel.
• Research the swallows/golondrinas mentioned in the novel. Trace and map their migration paths between Mexico and America each winter. 

Other Julie Alvarez titles to read:

• Before We Were Free; ISBN 0399555498  
• Finding Miracles; ISBN 039955548X
• In the Time of the Butterflies; ISBN 1449890938

Gather more immigration titles:

·       Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Uprising;  ISBN 1416911723  

·       Stork, Francisco X. Disappeared;  ISBN 054944473  
·       Budos, Marina.  Ask Me No Questions.  ISBN: 1416949208