If you’d like to understand better the difference in opportunities between students who have papers to live legally in this country and those who do not, I recommend that you read Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America. I already raved about this book, authored by Helen Thorpe, on this blog after I read it in February.
I mention the book again because Education Week Teacher is hosting an online discussion with the book’s author during the week of Oct. 25-29. Thorpe, who is the wife of Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, followed two Mexican girls with papers and two without for five years.
I rank the book as the best work of nonfiction I’ve read this year, not only because I’m interested in its subject matter but because it is so well put together.