Solito will make you think long and hard about illegal immigrant children. Imagine placing your 9-year-old grandson into the hands of strangers and expecting that they will safely deliver him across three borders to his parents. Then imagine that the trip goes horribly wrong and you have no idea where he is for 7 long weeks or if he is even still alive. Solito tells the story of Javier who will be traveling via "coyote" from El Salvador to California. The child has never left his small village, doesn't know how to tie his shoes and knows the wider world only through what he sees on television. Javier feels lost and abandoned by the people his grandfather trusted to care for him on this "two week" trip north to the United States. The journey is long and difficult but Javier is taken under the wing of a mother and daughter and a young man who is traveling with them. This "family" stays together through all of the hardships that come with trying to enter the U.S. illegally. A book that will keep you praying for this child to be reunited with his parents and give a better understanding of the perils of this journey taken by so many.

This book was an incredibly moving tale of a young boy's migration. Thank you to the publisher for an early copy of this.