Writer Julia Alvarez lives in Vermont, a state with a rich history of rural life. Spend any time on a family-owned farm, though, and you begin to realize just how difficult the work is, and how thin the margin is between success and failure.

A family-owned dairy farm is the setting for the novel Return To Sender. It tells the story of Tyler, an eleven year old boy with a passion for astronomy and his growing friendship with the children of Mexican farmworkers who labor on his family’s farm.

It’s a story about family, and the land, and borders, and gratitude — and we thought it was an excellent story to bring you on this holiday weekend.

Among several other awards, Return To Sender is the recipient of the 2010 Pura Belpré Award, presented by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association. It is named after Pura Belpré, the first Latina librarian at the New York Public Library and it is presented each year to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator who best portray, affirm, and celebrate Latino cultural experiences in outstanding works of literature for children and youth.