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4.36 AVERAGE
4.36 AVERAGE
informative
medium-paced
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Deportation
Moderate: Racism, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Classism
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
emotional
reflective
The first half was extremely engaging. I probably had heard of Jose, had seen the cover of Time back in 2012, but I definitely didn't know his story. He tells us about coming to the US from the Philippines at the age of 12, living with family in California, and accidentally learning several years later that he was not actually living in the country legally. The chapters of discovery, decisions, and dedication to “earning” his place as an American were golden. The storytelling bogs down past the halfway point, though, when he transitions back to full journalist mode and gives pages of background and data on politics and immigration. For a book that adamantly claims to not be about the politics of immigration, there are a whole lot of paragraphs about the politics (and statistics, and media coverage) of immigration. Still, definitely a game changer for me in the ways that I think about the individuals mired in the immigration nightmare. I'm also pleased to see that there's a Young Readers edition coming out in 2019.
informative
reflective
medium-paced