Shelly's Book Blog

Julia Alvarez won the 2010 Pura Belpré award for her novel, Return to Sender, in which an Americian boy named Tyler develops a close friendship with an undocumented girl named Mari who lives and works with her family on Tyler's family's farm. Alvarez explains in a note to her readers that the title of her book comes from the name of a real-life national sweep conducted in 2006 by the U.S. immigration authorities to round up undocumented immigrants who had criminal records. "Return to sender" is stamped on mail that has been incorrectly addressed or has insufficient postage, so the implication was that these people were also misdirected or insufficient.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this story, but I think Alvarez could have been more subtle in delivering her message. Most of the story is told through letters that Mari writes, and quite often I found myself thinking that Alvarez's voice overpowered Mari's, and the writing became more didactic than I was comfortable with. Still, Mari writes eloquently of the heartache she feels because she is separated from her mother, who has not returned from a trip to Mexico and is missing. She also expresses the joy of her friendship with Tyler, as well as the terrible anxiety she feels when her uncle is arrested and eventually deported. This story takes on an important issue, and I think Alvarez does an admirable job in illustating for a young audience its complexity.