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Paperback Return to Sender Book

ISBN: 0375851232

ISBN13: 9780375851230

Return to Sender

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Format: Paperback

Condition: Very Good

$5.49
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Book Overview

An award-winning, moving, and timely story about the families of undocumented workers by renowned author Julia Alvarez. After Tyler's father is injured in a tractor accident, his family is forced to hire migrant Mexican workers to help save their Vermont farm from foreclosure. Tyler isn't sure what to make of these workers. Are they undocumented? And what about the three daughters, particularly Mari, the oldest, who is proud of her Mexican heritage but also increasingly connected to her American life. Her family lives in constant fear of being discovered by the authorities and sent back to the poverty they left behind in Mexico. Can Tyler and Mari find a way to be friends despite their differences? In a novel full of hope, but with no easy answers, Julia Alvarez weaves a beautiful and timely story that will stay with readers long after they finish it. Winner of the Pura Belpré Award Winner of the Américas Award An NCSS-CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies "A must-read." -- Kirkus Reviews "Communicates in compassionate and expressive prose the more difficult points of perhaps the most pressing social issue of our day." -- San Antonio Express-News "This timely novel, torn right from the newspaper headlines, conveys a positive message of cooperation and understanding." -- School Library Journal "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. . . . The questions raised about the meaning of patriotism will spark debate." -- Booklist "A tender, well-constructed book." -- Publishers Weekly
More by Julia Alvarez
With her vivid tales of growing up between the two disparate cultures of the Dominican Republic and the United States, Julia Alvarez has drawn comparisons to writers ranging from Jane Austen to Gabriel García Márquez. However, its is Alvarez's fresh, vivid voice that sets her apart, an... Learn More About This Author
In the Time of the Butterflies
In the Time of the Butterflies
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How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
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Before We Were Free
Before We Were Free
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Afterlife
Afterlife
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The Cemetery of Untold Stories: A Novel
The Cemetery of Untold Stories: A Novel
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How Tia Lola Came to Stay
How Tia Lola Came to Stay
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In the Name of Salome
In the Name of Salome
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Flash Fiction: Very Short Stories
Flash Fiction: Very Short Stories
Mary Morris, Julia Alvarez, K.C. Frederick, Bret Lott, Carolyn Forché, Paul Lisicky, Margaret Atwood

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Yo!
Yo!
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Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales
Margaret Atwood, Francine Prose, Lucy Grealy, Ursula K. Le Guin, Lydia Millet, Midori Snyder, Vivian Gornick, Deborah Eisenberg, Kathryn Davis, Ann Beattie, Connie Rose Porter, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Linda Gray Sexton, Fanny Howe, Joyce Carol Oates, Terri Windling, Fay Weldon, Patricia Foster, Maria Flook, Julia Alvarez, Jane Miller, bell hooks, Carole Maso, Alice Adams, Fern Kupfer, Rosellen Brown, A.S. Byatt, Joy Williams

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The Woman I Kept to Myself
The Woman I Kept to Myself
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The Artists' and Writers' Cookbook: A Collection of Stories with Recipes
The Artists' and Writers' Cookbook: A Collection of Stories with Recipes
Julia Alvarez, Anthony Doerr, Nelson DeMille, Leanne Shapton, Natalie Eve Garrett, T. Coraghessan Boyle, Aimee Bender, Curtis Sittenfeld, Francesca Lia Block, Lev Grossman, Heidi Julavits, Neil Gaiman

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A Wedding in Haiti
A Wedding in Haiti
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Where Do They Go?
Where Do They Go?
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How Tia Lola Saved the Summer
How Tia Lola Saved the Summer
Julia Alvarez

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A Cafecito Story
A Cafecito Story
Julia Alvarez

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A Gift of Gracias: The Legend of Altagracia
A Gift of Gracias: The Legend of Altagracia
Julia Alvarez

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How Tia Lola Learned to Teach
How Tia Lola Learned to Teach
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Something to Declare
Something to Declare
Julia Alvarez

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Once Upon a Quinceanera: Coming of Age in the USA
Once Upon a Quinceanera: Coming of Age in the USA
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It Occurs to Me That I Am America: New Stories and Art
It Occurs to Me That I Am America: New Stories and Art
Viet Thanh Nguyen, Neil Gaiman, Mary Higgins Clark, Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Russo, Lee Child, Julia Alvarez, Bliss Broyard

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Been There, Done That: Writing Stories from Real Life
Been There, Done That: Writing Stories from Real Life
Mike Winchell, Margarita Engle, Matthew J. Kirby, Karen Cushman, Dee Garretson, Julia Alvarez, Nathan Hale

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Finding Miracles
Finding Miracles
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Saving the World
Saving the World
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Customer Reviews

9 customer ratings | 6 reviews

Rated 4 stars
A timely book for young people (and the not-so-young

I want to disclose that I know the author, but only slightly, and I lived for many years in both Middlebury and Bridport, Vermont. (Bridport is often called Bridgeport by out-of-staters passing through.) So when I see an acknowledgment to Jerry and Cheryl Connor, who own a large and beautiful farm in Bridport, I know I am in once familiar territory. But those were years ago. Today I live in Miami Beach where Spanish dominates...

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Rated 5 stars
Look into the Heavens

Julia Alvarez knows how to characterize the blur in the line between right and wrong. She knows how to make it clear that reality and morality are continuums and not dichotomies of this or that, up or down, or yes or no. There are no absolutes. (Now, there's an oxymoron.) We have a long way to go. Alvarez begins with a young man, her protagonist, Tyler, the younger eleven-year-old son in a family who has survived and thrived...

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Rated 5 stars
Transcends all borders and will join together many young readers in a new age

Julia Alvarez takes on America's uneasy immigration policies in her latest young adult offering. RETURN TO SENDER begins with a foreboding incident: 11-year-old Tyler's father is injured in a tractor accident, and their rural Vermont dairy farm needs immediate help. Hiring an unauthorized immigrant family from Mexico brings a solution to their problems, but young Tyler thinks that saving the farm may not be worth the higher...

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Rated 5 stars
Richie's Picks: RETURN TO SENDER

To the parents of eleven-year-old Tyler Paquette, the family of Mexican workers who have come to live in the trailer on their Vermont dairy farm are angels. Tyler had actually seen the tractor roll over, trapping his father underneath. He's had horrible nightmares about it ever since. If Tyler had not been there to call 9-1-1, his father wouldn't be alive today. Nevertheless, his father may never recover the full use...

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Rated 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too

Julia Alvarez's new book, RETURN TO SENDER, explores the issue of illegal immigration. Two twelve-year-olds share their connected stories involving this politically sensitive subject. Tyler's family runs a dairy farm. Up until the sudden death of his grandfather and then his father's farming accident, things had been going well. Now that his older brother is leaving for college, there isn't enough help around to do all...

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