I love how Rosayra opened up about her struggles growing up in Guatemala, how she dealt with the loss of her husband, losing hope. She really opened up about how bad the crime rate is in Guatemala, and the restrictions it offered. When she was also able to give a very detailed description of when she was shot, for example. A description that I was not expecting, but only added the situation dire for why she needed to leave the country.
When she made the decision to cross the border she decided on taking her two sons Yordy and Fernando. And as a reader you're wondering why them? Why take her sons, and not her daughters? Or at the very least her youngest daughter Britney? And the way she wrote this section she interacted with the reader, repeating the same questions that you were thinking. It made it real. She then goes to say that someone who has never lived with fear, and constant threats of violence, her decision seems impossible to understand. At times her writing style seemed blunt, when she was interacting with the reader, for example, but it didn’t take away from the reading. In fact it added a level of depth that made it real. That time was really of the essence, to come up with a plan, on protecting her family. And I loved how it panned out.
From the start there were quite a few one liners that really stuck with me and I can’t help but relate. I only wish we would have gotten more of an insight on the other two families that Julie helped the day that Rosayra made bail, Floridalma, and Lilian’s point of view. They were mentioned a couple of times but there was no closure for those two families. Adding their experiences would have also given a closer look at the treatment immigrants face, behind closed doors. I can only assume the final verdict was that her request for asylum went through and she was able to stay in the states with Fernando and Yordy, but I’d rather not assume and hope that the final copy gives that much needed update. Given that the verdict was postponed due to a clerical error. It’s just one thing after another for her, hit after hit, but she never gave up hope for wanting to start a better life for her and her family.

The Book of Rosy is an absolutely essential piece of witness—the account of one mother separated from her children under Trump's "Zero Tolerance" policy, along with reflections by the woman who founded the organization that finally gets Rosy out of immigration detention and back with her children. This book brings the day-to-day reality of current U.S. immigration policy to life, turning devastating headlines into a devastating, but also hopeful narrative.

Highly Recommended!

I received a free electronic review copy of this title. The opinions are my own.

Thank you for letting me read and review this book. This was a timely discussion on immigration. I really connected with Rosy.

This is a compelling telling of a woman's/family's journey to get to the US from Guatemala. The story is told in 3 parts, the 1st & last part are told by the woman (Rosy) making the journey herself....& she does a great job of telling her story. The middle part is told by the woman who helped facilitate Rosy's transition once in the US, & she too does an excellent job of giving voice to the needs of these immigrants. There are some good resources at the end of the book, for anyone wishing to know more about this. I would recommend this book to everyone, actually. It's a pretty quick, very interesting read. Real well done.
I received an e-ARC of this book, offering to read it & post my own fair & honest review, from Harper One/Harper Collins Publishers via NetGalley.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review this advance copy. This book is so important. We need true accounts of the immigration experience from people who have lived it, not sensationalized fiction.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper One for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Book of Rosy tells the true story of Rosayra Pablo Cruz, who came to America from Guatemala seeking asylum and who was separated from her two sons at the border in 2018. The book includes chapters written by Rosy and by Julie, who started the organization Immigrant Families Together. Julie's organization helped secure Rosy's release from her detention center, reunited her with her sons, and mobilized a network of volunteers to help Rosy's family start a life in America. The book is heartbreaking, inspiring, infuriating, and uplifting, and I highly recommend it.

I sincerely hope that this book gets just as much buzz, if not more, as another popular book that was recently published about the experience of people seeking refuge in America. The fact that this is a true story and written by someone who actually experienced having her children taken from her makes it much more powerful .

Review posted on Goodreads on May 5, 2020.

Raw, Real, Heartbreaking.

This would be an excellent companion to the novel, American Dirt. Only, this story is non-fiction, it's true. This story recounts a heart-wrenching portrayal of Rosy, whose children were torn from her at the U.S.-Mexico Border.

This story is a tale of loss of freedom and a tale of hope. It is real in the best and worst of ways. It shows the injustices and the inhumanity that is thrust upon many, while also showing the goodness that this world can offer.

It is ultimately a story of hope and redemption in the face of unspeakable loss.

This book is beautifully written! Rosy’s voice is honest, lyrical, and describes just how traumatic and difficult her personal journey to the US, and her encounter with Trump’s despicable zero tolerance policy was.

This book is roughly divided into two parts: Rosayra Pablo Cruz’s story, and then Julie Schwietert Collazo’s journey to creating the non profit Immigrant Families Together, and how she became part of Rosy’s story here in the US.

Rosy was born in Guatemala, lived mainly in poverty and survived several very traumatic events before she was even really an adult. Violence and death are everyday occurrences where she comes from, and she made the journey to the US a first time before going back home to join her children again, and then a second time once she realized her eldest son was in danger in Guatemala, leaving with her two sons. The second time happened just as Trump’s zero tolerance policy went into effect, and when Rosy claimed asylum at the border her two children were taken away from her and sent thousands of miles away.

In the meantime, a group of women, including Julie, were so distraught about the fact that children were being ripped from their parents’ arms (who wouldn’t be?!), that they formed an organization to help pay women’s bonds, reunite them with their children, and help them navigate the system. It is thanks to Immigrant Families Together that Rosy was able to pay her bond, make the trip from Eloy to NYC and be reunited with her children.

This period in US immigration history is especially dark, and it hurts my heart to think how many families were ripped apart, how many mothers were stuck in detention centers not knowing where their children had been taken. Rosy’s youngest son was still nursing when she made that second journey to the US, and still he was taken from her. The cruelty is unbelievable, yet it happened. I’m glad that Rosy’s story has a happier ending than some, but I finished the book wondering about all of the stories that did not have a happy ending, about all of the people stuck in detention centers, and all of the children who are still “lost” in the “system”. We are all human and we all have a right to a safe home, no matter where we come from. It’s not a crime to be an immigrant and to seek for safety, for a better life. So when are we going to stop criminalizing people for doing exactly that?

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review. And thanks to Rosy for telling her story, as hard as it must have been to relive.

Looking for a book to read instead of American Dirt? Look no further. This duel memoir tells Rosayra Pablo Cruz’s story of immigration, and of being separated from her children at the boarder. It also contains the story of an activist who inspires action by us all and demonstrates not only what we can each do, but how big of a difference it makes. Empathetic and inspiring.

This is a book about two amazing women—one who crossed the Mexican-American border twice and one who started a grass-roots effort to help women who have been separated from their children once they have made this difficult journey. I do not want to speak out of turn, but I believe Rosy would say she was one of the lucky ones—separated from her children she travelled with for only months, not years (or permanently) and found a group that not only provided her bond and travel to her children, but so many of the things that immigrants need to start feeling safe and beginning to heal and get settled in the U.S. This book is an amazing blueprint on how to truly accept and assist immigration families for any community, large or small. But, most of all to sustain her, Rosy had, and has, faith.

This is a moving story of immigrants and family separation at the border. It is told from two points of view. The first is Rosy, a Guatemalan mother who must make hard choices for the safety of her family by coming to the United States. As she enters, she is separated from her two sons and that separation lasts 81 days. Thankfully this is where Immigrant Families Together and Julie come in. This grassroots group provides the bonds for mothers to get out of detention and be reunited with their children. What is a heart-warming about this is the thousands of people who offered help and money to make this a reality. What is horrifying is that this needs to be done at all.

First off, this book is important. It gives a personal account of escaping the trauma and violence that is common place in Guatamala and Mexico as a woman and her son journey towards North America. I really enjoyed the memoir part of the book - Rosayra's personal account of immigration. At the border, she is separated from her children and lives in a jail for eighty-one days. Her bail is posted by a nonprofit group out of New York that made it their mission to fight the injustices the migrants find at the border.

Part II of the book transitioned to the head of this nonprofit company and that's where the book lost its steam to me. I also value this part of the story, but its inclusion with Rosayra's story felt clunky to me and didn't transition well. Maybe it would have went a little better with some introduction, but it took me half of the first chapter to realize we had a new narrator...I thought that it was a flash forward instead of the new perspective of the nonprofit.

Earlier this year, the publication of American Dirt came under fire as not accurately depicting life south of the border. Many people expressed that these types of stories should be written by #ownvoices so that those inaccuracies would be avoided. Because of that controversy, The Book of Rosy came on my radar. I felt like it was important for me to read an personal account of immigration, and now having finished The Book of Rosy, I'm more confused than ever about the earlier outrage. While American Dirt is fiction and The Book of Rosy is nonfiction, the parallels in both books are numerous. One of the chief complaints was that American Dirt inaccurately portrayed life in Guatamala and Mexico, but The Book of Rosy contradicts that notion - also depicting life in this part of the world as scary, violent, and controlled by the cartel.

Reading both of these books is imporatant so that you can form your own opinions on the controversy, and I'm grateful for the opportunity. I would love to talk to more people as they read both of these books, so if that's you, message me!

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars

Such an important and topical book to be published at this time. I hope it is widely read so that all of us can have a better understanding of what is happening at our borders currently.

If you read this book you will be filled with empathy and then anger as you see how immigrants crossing our borders are treated, especially the mothers and children being separated from one another.

Rosayra's story is one of grit and determination as she crosses the border not once, but twice to find a better life for her some of her family. It's also a book about hope as I read about all the amazing Americans helping those in need with money, clothing, housing and much more.

It's inspiring!

Rosayra Pablo Cruz is a mother of 4 who makes the difficult decision to take two of her children and seek asylum in the United States, due to horrible circumstances in her home country of Guatemala. In this memoir, Rosy shares the circumstances that led her to flee her country, the dangerous journey through Mexico to the US border, and the apprehension and subsequent separation of her and her sons. Thankfully, a group called Immigrant Families Together (IFT) helped Rosy (and many other mothers and children) through their work to free and reunite those who have been separated.
I thought this book was heartbreaking, hopeful, and timely. I highly recommend it!
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperOne for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I received this title as a digital ARC from NetGalley in return for a fair and honest review.

This book told in two voices provides the perspective of a woman fleeing Guatamala on the migrant highway, not once but twice, to save her life and those of her children. Rosayra makes the difficult decision twice to leave her home with some, but not all of her children. In turn, the voice of Immigrant Families Together (IFT) fills the second third of the book, portraying the initial efforts to save one migrant family and how the effort grew the social media, grassroots work of young mothers, and sheer persistence. This book moves between Eloy Detention Center and New York City courtrooms(primarily) giving an inside look into the emotion of one family seeking asylum and the nascent organization trying to provide it.

The powerful life story of Rosy and how she managed her childhood, to the loss of her husband, to the attempted murder of her own life, and then all of the tragedies she faced during the immigration crack down.

I devoured this book. I could not stop reading it. I have never gone through or been in the position the author was, however, I strongly believe this is in indeed an accurate representation of what people at the border experience. I know it could be seem as cliche or easy to say for me, but I admire when people like Rosy share their experiences, when they are brave enough or feel compelled to do something about it. Somehow, help the others that are living the same pain and suffering to have hope.

For us readers, it is a way to better understand and not easily judge or think all the people trying to cross the border are bad people, like they want us to believe. I can only imagine how hard and heartbreaking was for Rosy, and all the other moms there, to be separated from their children and for them as well, being without their moms, for such longs periods of times. Granted they are taking care of but is it not the same.

This certainly won't be the last book I will be reading on the subject of immigration, border stories, border separation. I want to know of other people's stories and better educated myself. I think we as a society have the responsibility to understand that behind the pain, the suffering, the difficulties, are real people and we have an obligation not to judge but understand and be more compassionate.

I found this gripping, heartbreaking and inspiring - the story of a Guatemalan woman's journey to cross the border to the US with her two children and the New York women who banded together to help her after Trump's cruel family separation policy tore them apart. A window into the complex, courageous people who seek asylum and the power of grassroots activism.

Y’all I feel so grateful that I was approved to read and review this book via @netgalley (Reviewer friends go request this book!!)This book is not out until June 2020 BUT please pre-order and request this book at your local library! Yay @harperonebooks for picking up this heart wrenching story. Rosayra tells her story about immigrating from her home country, Guatemala first with just one son and then again with both her sons, both times having to leave her daughters behind. Rosa is a single mother and business owner which puts her at risk for gang attacks and extortion. She has had one attempt made on her life already and so she decided to come to the U.S.via a coyote the first time she makes it, not without hiccups that are heartbreaking the second time she ends up separated from her children. I won’t say much more other than it is absolutely DESPICABLE how she and other immigrants are treated in what I’ll call U.S. internment camps for immigrants or better yet prisons because that is exactly what they are, prisons! I really enjoyed her story and at times was crying just thinking of my own toddler being separated from me. Her story is not over this month she has her final hearing to learn if she will get asylum and I am praying she does. Let me know if you end up pre-ordering the book!

This book is about a refugee from Guatemala and her family. It is narrated by Rosy, the immigrant, and Julie, the woman behind Immigrants Family Together (IFT). IFT is an organization which reunites families separated by Trump’s policies.. Rosy’s journey from her home to New York City where her sons have been relocated is harrowing and powerful. Julie’s transformation from stay at home mom to activist is also revealed. This was a very informative and interesting story which everyone should read. Thank you to HarperOne and NetGalley for this ARC.