Dreamers
by Yuyi Morales
One suitcase. A library. Everything you carry.
For you if
you want your child to understand what someone brings with them when they cross a border
⚡ Choose Your Route ⚡
Not sold directly on this site. Support indie bookstores with a new copy, or go sustainable with a used one.
Buy New on Bookshop.orgSupports independent bookstores
— OR —
Find Used on Better World BooksSecondhand & sustainable
$19 MSRP
Reference price shown. Other editions may be available.
Morales emigrated from Mexico to San José, California in 1994 with her infant son Kelly, speaking no English, knowing no one. She found the public library. Dreamers is the picture book she made from that first year — the mother and baby who arrived with one suitcase and discovered a world inside the library. The illustrations overflow their borders: books become doors, words become worlds. This is not a story about fitting in. It is Morales making the case that what you carry when you cross — story, craft, language, memory, the knowledge in your hands — is its own form of wealth that a border cannot take.
Where This Book Lives
- Themes
- belongingimmigration
Same pattern, different era
Different time, different place. The same thing keeps happening.
The Arrival
Shaun Tan
An immigrant's journey. No words. Every feeling.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Swimmy
Leo Lionni
All the small fish were scared. Swimmy had a different idea.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
My Two Border Towns
David Bowles
The border as home, not crisis.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Others: A Story for All of Us
Kobi Yamada
Curiosity beats fear. Every time.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
For the grown-up bookshelf
Same idea, written for a grown-up. Good for the adult in the room, too.
Me Talk Pretty One Day
David Sedaris
Grammar, meet neurosis.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Borderlands/La Frontera
Gloria Anzaldúa
The border isn't a line. It's a wound that won't scar.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Honeymoon in Tehran
Azadeh Moaveni
She goes back to Tehran to build a life there.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Lipstick Jihad
Azadeh Moaveni
Iranian American, going back to find out what that is.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST