From the prolific author of The Moon Within comes the
heart-wrenchingly beautiful story in verse of a young Latinx girl who
learns to hold on to hope and love even in the darkest of places: a
family detention center for migrants and refugees.
Nine-year-old Betita knows she is a crane. Papi has told her the
story, even before her family fled to Los Angeles to seek refuge from
cartel wars in Mexico. The Aztecs came from a place called Aztlan, what
is now the Southwest US, called the land of the cranes. They left Aztlan
to establish their great city in the center of the
universe-Tenochtitlan, modern-day Mexico City. It was prophesized that
their people would one day return to live among the cranes in their
promised land. Papi tells Betita that they are cranes that have come
home.
Then one day, Betita's beloved father is arrested by Immigration
Customs Enforcement (ICE) and deported to Mexico. Betita and her
pregnant mother are left behind on their own, but soon they too are
detained and must learn to survive in a family detention camp outside of
Los Angeles. Even in cruel and inhumane conditions, Betita finds heart
in her own poetry and in the community she and her mother find in the
camp. The voices of her fellow asylum seekers fly above the hatred
keeping them caged, but each day threatens to tear them down lower than
they ever thought they could be. Will Betita and her family ever be
whole again?
This critically acclaimed novel, Land of the Cranes, joins the
Scholastic Gold line, which features award-winning and beloved novels.
Includes exclusive bonus content!