Written & Illustrated by Yuyi Morales

Reviewed by Alex Battles (2019-2020)

Winner of the 2019 Pura Belpré Illustrator Award!
A New York Times / New York Public Library Best Illustrated Book of 2018

This story begins with a young mother traveling across the Mexico border into the US in hopes of a better life. Along with her son, she brought with her passion, strengths, and dreams. Together they overcome adversities through adjusting to this new world with a new language and culture. But they find a new home, the public library. They are welcomed with open arms into a land of literature. “Books became our language. Books became our home. Books became our lives. We learned to read, to speak, to write, and to make our voices heard.” The books they read in the library gave them opportunities to thrive in this new life. Dreamers is a story about celebrating diversity, family and migrants.

The lyrical texts are accompanied by detailed illustrations and symbolism. The end of the book includes a short autobiography explaining Yuyi’s experiences in more detail. As well as a list of books that inspired the author and a description of how the illustrations were created. I highly recommend this inspiring book and there are so many ways to use Dreamers in the classroom.

The book would best engage students in grades 1-3 but also applicable to older students. The book connects to multiple diversity standards and can start a conversation about immigration. Beautiful and powerful at any time but given particular urgency as the status of our own Dreamers becomes uncertain, this is a story that is both relevant and timeless.

Listen to Yuyi Morales talk about this stunning book.