From the prolific author of The Moon Within comes the heart-wrenchingly beautiful story in verse of a young Latinx girl who learns to hold on to hope and love even in the darkest of places: a family detention center for migrants and refugees. Nine-year-old Betita knows she is a crane. Papi has told her the story, even before her family fled to Los Angeles to seek refuge from cartel wars in Mexico. The Aztecs came from a place called Aztlan, what is now the Southwest US, called the land of the cranes. They left Aztlan to establish their great city in the center of the universe-Tenochtitlan, modern-day Mexico City. It was prophesized that their people would one day return to live among the cranes in their promised land. Papi tells Betita that they are cranes that have come home. Then one day, Betita's beloved father is arrested by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and deported to Mexico. Betita and her pregnant mother are left behind on their own, but soon they too are detained and must learn to survive in a family detention camp outside of Los Angeles. Even in cruel and inhumane conditions, Betita finds heart in her own poetry and in the community she and her mother find in the camp. The voices of her fellow asylum seekers fly above the hatred keeping them caged, but each day threatens to tear them down lower than they ever thought they could be. Will Betita and her family ever be whole again? Gr 4–8—Living in Los Angeles, 9-year-old Mexican-American Betita Quintero has grown up hearing from her father tales of how their people have returned to their ancestral home: They come from a land of cranes, and are destined to achieve great things. Yet, immigration laws say they are on the wrong side of the US-Mexico border. Betita's simple, loving life with her family is destroyed when Papi is deported to Mexico, and she and Mami (who is pregnant) are detained. While the beginning of this novel in verse is slow to build, Salazar rewards readers with a raw, honest story of detention in America from a child's vantage point that is beautifully told, heart-wrenching, and resonant. Told in first person, Betita's narrative voice captures the terror, upheaval, and uncertainty of detention and deportation in a way that is unrelenting while capturing a young person's understanding of horrific experiences. Salazar provides a necessary and useful author's note to contextualize the events in the book, which are not sugar-coated with an overly tidy ending. VERDICT A highly original work that deserves a place in all libraries, this look at detention and deportation of undocumented people in the United States is sure to stay with readers of all ages.—Monisha Blair, Rutgers Univ., NJ Distinctions and Praise for Land of the Cranes : 2020 Americas Award Winner Jane Addams Children's Book Award Honor Book New York Public Library's Best Books of 2020 Northern California Book Award Finalist California Library Association - Beatty Award Winner Charlotte Huck Award Honor Book Rise: A Feminist Book Project List * "Powerful...lyrical...soaring." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Some books are beautifully written. Others are vitally important. Land of the Cranes is both. Quite simply, a must-read."―Linda Sue Park, Newbery Medalist and New York Times bestselling author of A Single Shard "Aida Salazar is one of the most important new voices in children's literature. Land of the Cranes is a novel that uplifts, empowers, and soars. This book belongs in every classroom." ―Erin Entrada Kelly, Newbery Award-winning author of Hello, Universe "In a time of chaos, Land of the Cranes rises above the clouds of confusion and sings a skillful, migratory song; its sorrowful lament, a tearful message―Awaken! Awaken! Let love lead to change."―Guadalupe García McCall, Pura Belpré Award Winner of Under the Mesquite "Aida Salazar takes heartache and despair and is able to weave a lyrical narrative that confronts one of the greatest human rights violations on U.S. soil in recent memory."―Isabel Quintero, author of Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Book My Papi Has a Motorcycle Praise for The Moon Within : * "A worthy successor to Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret set in present-day Oakland... Salazar's verse novel is sensitive and fresh... An authentically middle school voice and diverse Latinx cast make this book a standout." -- Kirkus Reviews , starred review * "An excellent addition for upper middle grade and middle school readers, especially for maturing tweens in the midst of puberty." -- School Library Journal , starred review "This story is told in beautiful poems... A lovely, relatable story...The words really use up the space on the pages in creative ways, and the author reveals cultural aspects of Latinx (especially Xicana) and Caribbean peoples in rich detail." -- Booklist "Lyrical...The characters leap to life and eloquently evoke the passion and pain of a girl's coming-of-age. Absolutely beautiful, reverent, and