The winner of the Red Cedar Award for fiction this year was Alma Fullerton for Libertad.  Ms. Fullerton has also won the 2009 Golden Oak Award; 2009 TD Canadian Children's Literature Award; 2009 Once Upon a World Children's Book; and was the 2009 CLA (Canadian Library Association) Book of the Year Honour Book.

This is the story of two boys, Libertad and his little brother Julio, whose mother dies and they are left alone living near the Guatemala City Dump. They are no longer safe living there and Libertad realizes that he must find a way to survive so they set out for the Rio Grand River, earning their way as street musicians. Once reaching the Rio Grand River they must find a way to cross it and into the US to find their father.

 

Too Far

I put Julio down and collapse against a building.

Panting, Guerrero scampers up beside us

and lays his head on my lap.

 

I beg a man passing

for some food,

but he does not see us.

él no nos ve

 

He doesn't want

to see us.

 

He has his own family to feed.

There is nothing left

for us.

 

Finally someone does see us

and spits on us.

"Go home," he says.

 

Except we have only a memory

of a home.

And mi papi

too far away.

We can't get to him.

We can't do it

Alone.

 

It's too far.

Está tan lejos

What makes this book an interesting read is that it is in prose. A great book about freedom and social justice.