Un tren llamado Esperanza/A Train Called Hope

Illustrated by:
Boy with a train in front of mountains

In this poignant bilingual picture book, a boy remembers his first present, a toy train. Years later, after his parents have gone far away in search of work and a better future, the boy rides a real train to join his family. This one is loaded with hundreds of children traveling alone, just like him. There are frightening strangers, others along the way who want to jump on and, scariest of all, a boy who almost falls off the roof because he can't stay awake any longer. When the train finally arrives at its destination, everyone jumps off and the boy must continue his journey to find his mother. This moving, poetic story by award-winning Salvadoran author Mario Bencastro touches on the difficult journey north many Central American children make in hopes of finding their parents and a better life.