Luiselli, Valeria “Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions” Coffee House Press, March 03, 2017. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/citytech-ebooks/reader.action?docID=4818096.

Valeria begins volunteering in 2015 at a non-profit called The Door. There she interviews child immigrants and the first question she always asks is “Why did you come to the United States?” The answers are often the same, reuniting with their parents. Others have other factors like being pushed out by violence in their country. These kids are not searching for anything just trying to stay alive. The Children are full of horrendous stories about their journey to the United States giving haunting details.

This text exposes what the children face during the traumatic experience of immigration. I extremely support this text because it highlights the disastrous and exhausting progress that is immigration. The children see so much that many adults couldn’t even fathom. Not only are they being chased out of their own home but, here in the United States, they are also penalized by the residents. “The subject in question raised a complaint against gang members who waited for him outside of his high school every day, frequently followed him home, and began threatening to kill him.” No matter where they are, they never feel safe because someone is always out to get them. This quote perfectly highlights my research question, it shows how in school immigrant children feel like their life is still in danger. So they are left with no choice, either stay home in danger of gang violence and end up being a victim of it or leave home, go to the United States for a better opportunity, and still be in constant fear for their life. Not only will this affect them academically but also, in the future they will undoubtedly have many mental health issues because of their rough upbringing.

I personally love the authors writing style because it makes the reader feel like they are in the room with them. Experiencing the child’s movements, their body language, and their fears. This author’s intended audience on the surface would be the law but, really this is a message for all immigrants, especially children, to show that they are not alone and that these experiences are happening to many children around the world. The author is very credible because she is taking the story directly from the children that experienced these things, with the help of lawyers she has to be extremely credible to help build cases for the children.

“The Crisis will deepen and spread, and things will fall apart, unless all those kids find a way to become quickly and fully integrated. These kids have been through the worst. They arrive to find an unfamiliar country and a new language, but also a group of strangers that they must now call their family. They have to deal with family reunifications, interrupted education, acculturation, and trauma.