A timely and gripping novel that explores one boy's journey across the Mexico-US border
In Beast Rider, award-winning author Tony Johnston and psychotherapistMaria Elena Fontanot de Rhoads "offer a sympathetic, illuminating portrait of the challenges faced by one undocumented immigrant" (Publishers Weekly, Starred Review).
Twelve-year-old Manuel leaves his small town in Mexico to join his older brother in Los Angeles. To cross the US border, he must become a "beast rider"--someone who hops on a train. The first time he tries, he is stopped by the Mexican police, who arrest and beat him. When he tries again, he is attacked by a Mexican gang and left for dead.
Just when Manuel is ready to turn back, he finds new hope. Villagers clothe and feed him, help him find work, and eventually boost him back onto the train. When he finally arrives in LA and is reunited with his brother, he is elated. But the longer he's there, the more he realizes that something isn't right.
Thrilling and heartfelt, Beast Rider is a coming-of-age story that reveals how a place and its people help to define you.
Publisher: ABRAMS
Original Binding: Hardcover with dust jacket
Pages: 192 pages
ISBN-10: 141973363X
Item Weight: 0.7 lbs
Dimensions: 5.7 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
**STARRED REVIEW** "Like the chugging of The Beast, Johnston's poetic prose permeates Manuel's journey and gives a steady rhythm to the story even as Oaxaca-based psychotherapist and translator Fontanot de Rhoads provides details to ground it . . . A beautiful, visceral plunge into the perils that the train-jumping migrant brotherhood experiences."
-Kirkus Reviews
Tony Johnston is the award-winning author of more than 100 children's books. She lives with her family in San Marino, California.
Maria Elena Fontanot de Rhoads is a Mexican psychotherapist who specializes in childhood trauma. She lives in Mérida, Mexico.
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