Nora is on a desperate journey far away from home. When her father leaves their beloved Mexico in search of work, Nora fights to make sense of her loss while waiting for her father's return and a better day. When the letters and money from her father stop coming, Nora decides that she and her mother must look for him in Texas. After a harrowing experience crossing the border, the two are all alone in a strange place called Houston. Now, Nora figures out how to survive while still aching for small comforts: friends, a new school, and a quinceañera to mark her fifteenth birthday.



Bettina Restrepo's powerful and deeply hopeful debut novel captures the challenges of one girl's unique yet universal immigrant experience.

 

Praise for Illegal:

 

"Bettina Restrepo's first novel is a vivid and unsparing look at the life of an illegal teenage girl who comes to the U.S. from Mexico in search of her father. Faith, family, and friendship are all features of this unforgettable individual life, which is emblematic of so many others that are too seldom examined in novels for teens. An important novel that deserves a wide readership."--Michael Cart, author of My Father's Scar and Love and Sex: Ten Stories of Truth