RETURN TO SENDER By Julia Alvarez Yearling Book, 2009 “It should be easier being a Mexican than being an alien from outer space.” –Tyler “ America is a whole hemisphere, north and south. We are all -American! Raices mexicanas y flores norteamericanas… a bouquet with Mexican roots and North American flowers .” –Mari "It’s not wrong in the eyes of God. Sometimes, a country has these laws that have nothing to do with what’s right or what’s best for most of the people involved.” –Tyler’s Dad Julia Alvarez is best known for her adult books HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS LOST THEIR ACCENT and IN THE TIME OF BUTTERFLIES, but there is another Julia that I am just discovering… the one that writes children books. She wrote RETURN TO SENDER as a way of helping both the children of Vermont and those of the Mexican migrant workers arriving to work the farms cope with their new situation. The name comes from the dragnet operation carried out by the Department of Homeland Securit...