Dream Things True

Evan and Alma have spent fifteen years living in the same town, connected in a dozen different ways but also living worlds apart -- until the day he jumps into her dad's truck and slams on the brakes.
The nephew of a senator, Evan seems to have it all - except a functional family. Alma has lived in Georgia since she was two, surrounded by a large (sometimes smothering) Mexican family. They both want out of this town. His one-way ticket is soccer; hers is academic success.

When they fall in love, they fall hard, trying to ignore their differences. Then Immigration and Customs Enforcement begins raids in their town, and Alma knows that she needs to share her secret. But how will she tell her country-club boyfriend that she and almost everyone she's close to are undocumented immigrants?

What follows is a beautiful, nuanced exploration of the complications of immigration, young love, defying one's family, and facing a tangled bureaucracy that threatens to completely upend two young lives. This page-turning debut asks tough questions, reminding us that love is more powerful than fear.

MARIE MARQUARDT is a Scholar-in-Residence at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology and the author ofLiving IllegalThe Human Face of Unauthorized Immigration. She is widely published in the areas of religion, inter-ethnic relations, and civic participation of Mexican immigrants in the U.S. South. Marquardt has also worked extensively as an advocate among immigrants in Atlanta. She is a founding organizer and currently serves as co-chair of El Refugio, a hospitality house outside the gates of the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. Marie is also a member of the We Need Diverse Books team. Marquardt lives with her husband and four children in a very busy household in Decatur, Georgia. Dream Things True is her first young adult novel.