Book excerpt

"And the adults kept saying: how lucky we are to be in America. I wasn't convinced. I saw them walking in the snow drifts, their backs bent, their hands curled to their sides. I felt the humiliation of not knowing English and a bubble of hurt began. But when I saw how hard they all worked to keep us in school, to put warm food on the old tabletops, I could not, no matter how discouraged, say: this is not enough. This is not the life I had wanted for myself or you in this country or any other. We've come too far for this. Haven't we?"