La Frontera / El Viaje Con Papá by Deborah Mills, Alfredo Alva and Claudia Navarro

Publisher: Barefoot Books
On Sale Date: May 1 2018
Pages: 48

Age Range: 5-8 years

Alfredo is a boy around 8 years old. He lives with his family in the  Central Mexican village of La Ceja. His father, uncle Tomás and abuelo walk five miles everyday to work in the pinyan tree forest, where they gather the pine nuts from the trees, which is the source of income for the family. In the summer months, Alfredo helps his father stacking corn to dry in the far away valley.
But then there comes a day when abuelo isn't fit enough anymore to walk and work with them in the trees. Without his help, the family income is in danger. Abuelo advises papá though to travel to a place where there is more work and to take Alfredo with him.

The next week, they are travelling together in the middle of the night in a rubber boat over the Rio Grande, after a walk in the desert, they are picked up at the American side by a coyote in a pick-up truck. A few weeks later in El Paso, Texas, Alfredo starts to go to school and is later reunited with his family who have also crossed the border, and apply for the long journey for citizenship.

La Frontera is a very good book for young children about immigration. It is made very understandable for the age group it is aimed at. The story is based on author Alfredo Alva's own journey to the United States, which you can read more about in the book. 
The illiustrations by Claudia Navarro are very beautiful and really add to the story. This book fits perfectly in the recent line of other books and movies for children about Mexico, as for example the recent Disney movie Coco. It is very nice to see more diverse books for this age group. What is also nice  about this book is that everything is written in both Spanish and English. 
This is just a very good book in this topic and I certainly recommend it!