Orca Book Publishers (Fall 2009)
* selected for the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s Best Books for Kids and Teens 2011, and shortlisted for the 2010 Bolen Book Children’s Book Prize, and the 2011 Chocolate Lily Awards and Rocky Mountain Book Award
Ten-year-old Rosario Ramirez and her family are political refugees from Mexico, trying to make a new life in Canada. After being teased at school, Rosario vows not to speak English again until she can speak with an accent that’s one hundred percent Canadian. Since she and her parents plan to spend the whole summer working on BC fruit farms, she will be surrounded by Spanish speakers again. But when her family’s closest friend Jose gets terribly sick, Rosario’s plans start to unravel. Neither Jose nor Rosario’s parents speak English well enough to get him the help he needs. Like it or not, Rosario must face her fears about letting her voice be heard.
The proposal for this book won the 2007 Frances E. Russell Award from the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) – Canada.
Fiction for ages 8 +
