We Are All We Have - by Marina Budhos

About the Book

After her mom is taken by ICE, seventeen-year-old Rania's hopes and dreams for the future are immediatly put on hold as she figures out how take care of her younger brother and survive in a country that seems to be closing around them.

Book Synopsis

When a teenage girl's single mom is taken by ICE, everything changes--all of her hopes and dreams for the future turn into survival.

Seventeen-year-old Rania is shaken awake in her family's apartment in Brooklyn. ICE is at the door, taking her mother away. But Ammi has done everything right, hasn't she? Their asylum case is fine.

This was supposed to be Rania's greatest summer: hanging out with her best friend, Fatima, and getting ready for college in the fall.

But now, none of that is certain. Now, along with her younger brother, Kamal, and a new friend, Carlos, Rania must figure out how to survive.

In this vivid exploration of what happens when the country you have put your hopes into is fast shutting down, award-winning author Marina Budhos shows us how one girl bursting with dreams navigates secrets, love, and the lure of the open road.

Review Quotes

★ "A triumphant tale about finding home." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

★ "Budhos weaves a rich tapestry of words that navigates a yearning for acceptance, love, and the unerring need for freedom." --Booklist, starred review

"The tightly wound plot creates an underlying tension as the young characters' situations constantly unravel." --The Horn Book

"[A] hopeful tale with a large cast of kind-hearted characters, whose boundless compassion for Rania and Kamal, and sense of helplessness in the face of an unfair and impossible government system, is palpable." --Publishers Weekly

About the Author

MARINA BUDHOS is the author of award-winning fiction and nonfiction. Her novels for young people are The Long Ride, Watched, Tell Us We're Home, and Ask Me No Questions. Her nonfiction books are Remix: Conversations with Immigrant Teenagers and two coauthored books, Eyes of the World: Robert Capa, Gerda Taro & the Invention of Modern Photojournalism and Sugar Changed the World, written with her husband, Marc Aronson. Budhos has received an NEA Fellowship in Creative Writing and has been a Fulbright Scholar to India and was a professor of English at William Paterson University.