NCW Libraries

Toño has spent his entire life rising hours before dawn to feed the animals and mind the farm of his father Jose Angel. He wants nothing more than a plot of land and a farm of his own. And he knows exactly how to get it: make his way across the Mexican border to the United States of America, where he'll earn enough money to help his family and himself.

A few generations from now, the coastlines of the continent have been redrawn by floods and tides. Global powers have agreed to not produce any new plastics, and what is left has become valuable: garbage is currency. In the region-wide junkyard that Appalachia has become, Coral is a "plucker," pulling plastic from the rivers and woods. She's stuck in Trashlands, a dump named for the strip club at its edge, where the local women dance for an endless...

When Papa Rabbit does not return home as expected from many seasons of working in the great carrot and lettuce fields of El Norte, his son Pancho sets out on a dangerous trek to find him, guided by a coyote. Includes author's note.

"I tell you, God could care less about the poor. Tell me, why must we live here like this? What have we done to deserve this? You're so good and yet you suffer so much," a young boy tells his mother in Tomás Rivera's classic novel about the migrant worker experience. Outside the chicken coop that is their home, his father wails in pain from the unbearable cramps brought on by sunstroke after working in the hot fields. The young boy can't understand...

A Mexican boy tells of his journey to the U.S. with his family. They must face many dangers to cross the border, only to experience the uncertainty felt by all illegal immigrants.

A creative nonfiction story of how, during the Great Depression, seven-year-old Ruby's family leaves their Oklahoma home to seek work in California, where Ruby meets Dorothea Lange, who takes a photograph that becomes known as "Migrant mother." Includes historical note.