To The Other Side
A powerful, award-winning story of two refugees searching for safety
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
*Winner of Best Picture Book at the Diverse Book Award 2024*
'A thoughtful, profound, important book' Irish Independent
'A realistic but hopeful look at two children's emigration' Publishers Weekly
Powerful and timely, To The Other Side explores the journey of two young refugee children in search of safety. Perfect for opening up conversations about conflict and war, encouraging empathy and understanding.
A young boy and his older sister have left home to play a game. To win, she tells him, they must travel across endless lands together and make it to the finish line.
Each child imagines what might be waiting for them across the border: A spotted dog? Ice cream! Or maybe a new school. But the journey is difficult, and the monsters are more real than they imagined.
And when it no longer feels like a game, the two children must still find a way to forge ahead, and reach the other side.
A stunning, symbolic and emotionally rich picture book about the spirit and strength it takes to leave your home behind. Beautifully brought to life by award-winning author-illustrator Erika Meza.
Shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal, the Jhalek Prize, the Diverse Book Awards, the Inclusive Books for Children Award and the Little Rebels Award, and selected by Empathy Lab for The 2024 Read for Empathy Collection.
Praise
'One of the best picture books I've read in recent memory' Steve Antony
'Perceptive and exquisitely illustrated' Flavia Z. Drago
'Beautiful. Beautifully illustrated. Beautifully told' Jarvis
'An incredible book' Mark Bradley
'Simply impeccable' Steven Lenton
'An instant classic' Celine Kiernan
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This powerful solo work by Meza (Mariana and Her Familia) follows two unaccompanied, Latinx-cued children heading for the U.S.-Mexico border. As they start out, an older sister explains to the child narrator that "the rules of the game are simple": if they avoid monsters, evade capture, and keep moving, she says, they'll win "when we cross the line." Wearing colorfully rendered masks to "hide us. Make us fast. Make us brave," the siblings leave their home, portrayed in the ink-gray of the book's landscapes, to set out along a blossoming path bright with blooms. Soon, however, skeletal shadow-creatures threaten, as the children cross rivers and ride atop train boxcars. Dispirited ("this game was too long. Too tiring. Too hard"), the narrator at last realizes the reality of the situation, and perseveres as the duo approach, and cross, the border into a new set of experiences. Accompanying simple language that foregrounds a child's observations amid heightened danger are gouache, marker, and digital illustrations that layer pink, purple, and orange flowers and masks against ink-black bleeds and a repeating barred motif that represents myriad threats. It's a realistic but hopeful look at two children's emigration. An author's note concludes. Ages 4–8.
