By Reyna Grande
Publisher: Atria Books (A Division of Simon and Schuster, Inc.)
This memoir, written by Reyna Grande, takes us into the world of a child and her siblings left behind in Mexico by parents who were seeking a better life in the United States. This memoir captures the innocent feelings of a child and her siblings as they try to cope with the separation and breakup of their family. 
Reyna doesn’t shy away from showing the desperate and hopeless feelings of a child thrust into surroundings that are less than favorable as she and her siblings start a new life with a grandmother who treats them as a burden. She explicitly captures the state of mind of a child torn apart from the only security she once knew, and descriptively shows how it changes her life and future.
The author gives the reader insight of a price paid by children who are left behind by emigrating parents and shows that sometimes the consequences are dire. Although, the intent of her parents to leave them behind begins with good intentions, in the end the damage it causes the family unit is just so heartrending.
Her easy and simple style of writing adds to the brilliant crescendo of where this memoir goes. But I must warn you, it’s a book you can’t put down! It will rip at your heart and take you on a rollercoaster ride of sad emotions, yet it does have some lighthearted moments. Not only does this book tap into feelings that you weren’t expecting for the children left behind, but it also brings to the forefront a hardly-discussed issue of broken families and their survival.
Was this memoir therapeutic for the author? I’m not sure; however, I do believe that it must have been. How could a book that exposes one’s life in such raw form not be so?
If you choose one book to read this year, you must pick this one. It is a book that should be on your bookshelf alongside Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt and The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Yes, it is that good!
Source: Book was bought and reviewed by Corina Martinez Chaudhry.
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