Mama's Nightingale

PreS-Gr 2—Danticat's first book for children is the bittersweet story, bookended by a lilting guitar and accordion waltz, of a family fractured by United States immigration law. For three months, Saya and her father have trudged through their days, doing what they can to stay connected with Saya's mother, an undocumented immigrant—including weekly visits to the detention center where she's being kept. By night, Papa writes letter after letter, attempting to get the paperwork necessary for Mama to be released from the ironically named Sunshine Correctional. To ease the heartache of their separation, Mama records Haitian folklore bedtime tales for Saya. When Saya decides to tell her family's story, its publicity finally sparks progress toward reuniting their family. The text is gently read by seasoned Robin Miles, who adopts a mild Haitian Creole accent and fluidly rolls the sprinkling of Creole words off her tongue. In an author's note also read by Miles, Danticat briefly describes her own childhood separation from her parents, also owing to immigration laws, and reminds listeners that many, many families today are separated by imprisonment and deportation.