The Freedom Seeker

Gupta (I Kick and I Fly) follows one immigrant child’s experience attempting a dangerous border crossing to seek refuge in this wrenching family story. Twelve-year-old field hockey player Simi Singh and her Punjabi family have happily lived in Chandigarh, India, all her life. Then her father is badly beaten by members of a conservative group that’s advocating to ban interfaith marriages, including that of Simi’s Hindu Sikh abbu and Muslim ammi. After Abbu applies for—and is denied—a visa to the U.S., he instead opts to travel there via the Donkey Express, “chartered planes that smuggle Punjabis to America illegally.” Granted asylum in the U.S., Abbu works to send money back for Ammi and Simi’s escape. But complications during her own journey to the U.S. find Simi separated from her mother in Mexico. Gupta powerfully exposes how othering occurs via frank prose that details the rapid escalation of prejudice rhetoric in Simi’s neighborhood, the brutal conditions of the border crossing, and the cruel political bureaucracy Simi contends with during her travels. This sobering novel’s optimistic and steadfast tone— highlighted through Simi’s own self-determination, and in joyful instances of kindness and connection— rings true across grim depictions of loss. Ages 8–12. (Aug.)