Return to Sender

Return to Sender

By Julia Alvarez

10 ratings 34 reviews 13 followers
Interest LevelReading LevelReading A-ZATOSWord Count
Grades 5 - 12Grades 4 - 7n/a5.5n/a
After Tyler's father is injured in a tractor accident, his family is forced to hire migrant Mexican workers to help save their Vermont farm from foreclosure. Tyler isn’t sure what to make of these workers. Are they undocumented? And what about the three daughters, particularly Mari, the oldest, who is proud of her Mexican heritage but also increasingly connected her American life. Her family lives in constant fear of being discovered by the authorities and sent back to the poverty they left behind in Mexico. Can Tyler and Mari find a way to be friends despite their differences?

In a novel full of hope, but no easy answers, Julia Alvarez weaves a beautiful and timely story that will stay with readers long after they finish it.
Publisher: Yearling
ISBN-13: 9780375851230
ISBN-10: 0375851232
Published on 9/14/2010
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 352

Book Reviews (36)

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 Faithyn Vega Faithyn Vega

The book Return to Slender by Julia Alvarez is about Mari and Tyler. Mari came from Mexico to America and is trying to hide from La Migra. On the other hand Tyler is a boy that Mari met one day and they had became friends but then Tyler starts to thing why he should not be friends with Mari. A few chapters later Mari's family had to lay low for a bit. I would say that something interesting about this book is that it has to parts in every chapter a letter part that is in first person and the story part that is in 3 person. The letter is about Mari and the story part is about Tyler. Another thing that I like about this book is that it has flashbacks one in a while. I really don't have anything I don't like about this book but one thing is that sometimes this book is a little bit changing to read but besides that there is nothing else I do not like about this book. I would recommend this book because it talks about all the fears that immigrant families go though and how another family that at first did know anything about them come in and start trying to help Maris family not get caught my La Mrgia.

Lezayzay Lezayzay

This book is about a little girl from Mexico named Mari who moves to the United States and a little boy in the United States named Tyler who both have family issues. Mari is an immigrant from Mexico, who has no contact with her mama and struggles to be a mother to her younger sisters and also struggles to keep faith that her mother will come back to her. Tyler is in the United states he lives on a dairy farm, ever since he grandpa passes and his fathers terrible injury on the farm he thinks the dairy farm has bad luck. This is an AMAZING book me and my classmates love it!! If you love drama this would be an amazing book for you.

lightning_0ALS lightning_0ALS

This book is amazing! this book is about two families. One family is American and the other is Mexican. The American family hired Mexican workers when the family had an accident and the father couldn't work anymore. The Mexican family is undocumented and tio Felipe was caught by the La migra and was forced to return back to Mexico. The Mexican family is worried that they too will be forced to return back to Mexico since they are undocumented. The Mexican family really like their life here in America and are worried that the American family will report them to La Migra. My favorite character is Mari I love it when she rights such thoughtful letters to Mama. The book reminds me of the book, Esperanza. It is just like it because it is also talking about immigration.

pinkk ddr pinkk ddr

This book is about a girl that is living in America, on a farm where they work, illegally with her two sisters, her dad, and two uncles. My favorite character in this book is Mari because she likes different from her other sisters and she's not like the usual main characters. This book was not interesting to me because everything happened really slowly and nothing surprising happened until around the end. This book is very similar to 'esperanza rising' Pam Muñoz Ryan. I do this book because it's very long, and you can find out a lot about the characters in my opinion, but it's an overall good book.

Ms.Madisyn Ms.Madisyn

this book is about in my opinion is about family and be together. my favorite character is grandma because she can be funny and sad. something I enjoy in the book was the book because it was good. this book reminds me of a good family. I receded this book because it is so so good.

Gigi DR Gigi DR

This book is about when father got injured he needed to save the farm but he couldn't find workers so Mother and Father decided to leave it Tyler was sad because the farm meant a lot to him he's been with it for so long.So in order to save the farm they need to hire migrant Mexican workers to help save their farm .And Tyler when the workers came Tyler was confused because there was 3 other girls and Mother told him that the three girls are going to be going to the same school as you.Tyler doesn't know if they are going to get along because the girls came from Mexico to Vermont and he sticks with the law.My favorite characters are Mari and Tyler.My least favorite characters are Mother and Father because they want to send Grandma to a place to keep her in and they think it is the best for her but they don't even let Grandma choose if she wants to stay or go and Mari also was worried about her.Something I enjoyed about this book was that Mari and Tyler were able to be friends because both of them had issues like when they were in the school bus these two bullies were saying things to Tyler that his father did something illegal which was the girls because they came from Mexico to Vermont and Tyler frozed and didn't defend Mari and then they just stopped talking to each other but then Tyler did something for Mari too say sorry and he knew it was not her fault.So that's why I like it because they have problems but they both solve it together.The book is unique because even though there is differences they all together they stick together.I recommend this book because it talks about how there was some bad things but we solve it together and get it through the things.

golden girl O.D golden girl O.D

This book is marvelous, my class is reading this book and it is so far marvelous, I love the Cruz’s They are immigrant’s and they are on the run they can’t find there mother and uncle Felipe got arrested and they all have not paper’s or documents to be in the United States of America and it is hard for Maria because some kids make fun of her just because she is an immigrant and if you love drama this is the perfect book for you, my class is understanding the moral dilemmas and this book reminders me of “Esperanza Rising” by Pam Muñoz Ryan, they were both in the same times, I would recommend this book Return to Sender By Julia Alvarez, I hope you like it

Hayleebaylee Hayleebaylee

this book is about an immigrant family staying and working on a dairy farm in a trailer. in the house of the dairy farm lived the owners the Paquetes lived in the house with two children while the people how lived in the trailer had 3 kids. this book is about immigration friendship honesty and much more if you like reading about mysteries and of family and doing what is right then I recommend this book to you

pup mpr pup mpr

This book is awesome its about 2 family and one of the family is not supposed be there in that Contrey or in the farm because there Mexican and have no papers and if they have no paper, they will be sent to the migra and go back to there Contrey.They live next door to someone but they live in there farm. There's 3 girls who lives there with there mama there and the girls are all name Mari and soon the Mari's makes friends with tyler. The other family dose have papers and they have a kid named tyler and 2 girls name ofi and luby and Tyler's uncle, Tio f. gets them in trouble and along the way there is lots of problem but soon enough mari and tyler became friends and they get into fights to but still are friends.

RM RM

THIS BOOK IS SO GREAT I LOVE THIS BOOK IT KEEPS YOU IN INTREST IM ALMOST FINSH AND I WANT A PART TWO OR SOMETHING OR LIKE A MOVIE AND IT LIKE IT SAD TOO BECAUSE THEY MOM NOT WITH THEM AND ITS A HARD TIME FOR THEM RIGHT NOW

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