“When we travel, I count what I see … One little bored donkey and fifty birds in the sky … the people who live by the train tracks.” A singular and extraordinary picture book pairs the matter-of-fact voice of a young girl giving a childlike accounting of the journey she and her father are taking with detailed color illustrations that show the context and content of their travels. They are journeying away from their home and toward some unknown that surely represents safety, and, one can imagine, freedom and opportunity. However, none of this is stated in a narrative firmly grounded in the child’s voice. From riding atop her father’s shoulders to crossing a river on a raft, sitting on top of a train car to sleeping in the back of a pickup truck, the challenges and potential dangers of their travels are revealed through the art, in which the warmth between father and child is also apparent. So, too, is the weight of the father’s worry, although he is clearly trying to keep it from being her burden, too. Tender, heartbreaking, exceptional, this volume concludes with a note about the movement of refugees across Central America and Mexico toward the United States. (Ages 5–12)

A story of a young girl and her father told from the child's point of view that thoughtfully reflects the migration and refugee experience. The girl and her father are traveling, presumably to the border, but the little girl does not know where they are going. She keeps herself preoccupied by counting and using her imagination, despite the harrowing challenges they and other migrants face. The book provides young readers with a better understanding of the humanitarian crisis surrounding migration and refugees.

Published in Canada, not US.

Author lives in Mexico.

Originally published in Spanish as Dos Conejos Blancos. English translation by Elisa Amado published in the United States by Groundwood Books/ House of Anansi Press in 2015.

In this moving and timely story, a young child describes what it is like to be a migrant as she and her father travel north toward the US border.

They travel mostly on the roof of a train known as The Beast, but the little girl doesn’t know where they are going. She counts the animals by the road, the clouds in the sky, the stars. Sometimes she sees soldiers. She sleeps, dreaming that she is always on the move, although sometimes they are forced to stop and her father has to earn more money before they can continue their journey.

As many thousands of people, especially children, in Mexico and Central America continue to make the arduous journey to the US border in search of a better life, this is an important book that shows a young migrant’s perspective.

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.3
With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.