Boy from Mexico Becomes a US Citizen

Edward Dennis is an illustrator, an art teacher, and a social media marketing maven with expertise working with many businesses, hotels, and restaurants improving their individualized market outreach. He has written and illustrated The Boy from Mexico: An Immigration Story of Bravery, The Boy From Mexico Becomes a Farmworker: Grown-Up Luz and His Friends Feed America, and The Boy from Mexico Becomes a US Citizen. Additionally, Edward has illustrated the story of the immigrant chef, Cristina Martinez, from the Netflix special Chef’s Table, and has illustrated other books, including a collection of children’s books called My First BMX Race, and a book about ocean care, A Mermaid's Message. Edward has also created artistic work for big names such as Madonna and Erick Cedano. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

"This delightful, color-rich picture book has a simple design that helps young children better understand the complexities, challenges, and uncertainties of immigration. Guided by cartoon images of Luz and his hermano, Pedro, readers learn, 'Each year, people come from all over El Mundo to the U.S. with hopes of peace, freedom, and a better life.' Though Luz has come to work in the artichoke fields of California, Pedro still lives in Tijuana. Their dream is to create a business together, cultivating and selling honey in America. Luz has a special green card as a resident alien and is studying to become an American citizen. The pages feature vibrant, bold colors; each page contains just one sentence superimposed in bright white or black with a large font, which allows the words to stand out and blend Spanish with the English text seamlessly. On pages that express Luz's fears of being deported, dark, foreboding colors fill the background. This deceptively uncomplicated book weaves a friendship story with a clear explanation of the citizenship process and the character traits of dreamers who work hard as they strive to achieve a bright future in a new home. VERDICT This book goes a long way toward demystifying current topics of interest to a generation of young learners." — School Library Journal, Lonna Pierce