Reading headlines about the Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies, I find myself both disheartened and worried for young people. But I’m grateful to be part of the kid lit community—a group of people willing to speak truth to power. Last spring, author Aida Salazar spoke at Manhattan’s Bank Street College of Education. Growing up as an undocumented immigrant, she felt like she was “living in the shadows,” but literature and writing were her salvation; today, she fondly remembers the fifth grade teacher who gifted her a pen and a copy of Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends. Salazar was devastated to see images of young migrant children separated from their parents during the first Trump presidency, but she drew on her pain to write her mesmerizing 2020 novel in verse, Land of the Cranes, about a girl who perseveres even after her father is deported.
I’m pleased to see other authors following suit with tales that remind young immigrants that they matter. With her picture book Some of Us: A Story of Citizenship and the United States (Christy Ottaviano Books, May 27), Rajani LaRocca stresses that no matter what trajectory newcomers take (“Some of us are invited to study or work… Some flee war, oppression, poverty”), all enrich their new homes with their presence. Huy Voun Lee’s painterly images alternate bleak imagery with triumphant scenes for a clear-eyed tribute to those who bravely build new lives.
Eugenia Perrella’s picture book My Home Is in My Backpack (Floris, October 7), translated from Spanish by Sally Polson, tracks a Latine family’s arduous trek from an unspecified country to a new land. Narrated by the youngest child, who queries fellow travelers about their memories of home, this tender tale softens potentially harsh subject matter while still underscoring the family’s worries. Artist Angela Salerno superimposes images of food, toys, and other prized objects onto her earth-toned illustrations—reminders that immigrants carry with them cherished recollections of home as they begin new chapters in their lives.
Too often, immigration is framed as a dichotomy between “good” immigrants—those who enter the U.S. through the proper legal channels—and those who are undocumented. The reality is far more complex, as two recent middle-grade works demonstrate. A sequel to 2023’s Parachute Kids, Betty C. Tang’s new graphic novel Outsider Kids (Graphix/Scholastic, April 15) follows three siblings living on their own in 1980s California, pursuing an education while their parents seek visas back in their homeland, Taiwan. Tang has crafted another portrait of vulnerable youth whose very existence is fraught—they constantly fear that the authorities will learn of their undocumented status—but who find joy in their love for one another.
Ruchira Gupta’s The Freedom Seeker (Scholastic, August 5) centers on 12-year-old Simran, who must flee her home in Chandigarh, India, when her family is targeted by violent bigots who disapprove of her parents’ interfaith marriage. Simran’s father travels to Mexico to cross the border into the U.S., soon followed by her and her mother, but during the course of the perilous journey, Simran finds herself alone in a detention center. This is a profoundly empathetic tale of a young girl whose light remains undimmed even as her family is forced to choose between increasingly treacherous options.
Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.
