The distance between us cover

The distance between us

by Reyna Grande

Award-winning author Reyna Grande shares her compelling experience of crossing borders and cultures in this middle grade adaptation of her compelling unvarnished, resonant (BookPage) memoir,The Distance Between Us. When her parents make the dangerous and illegal trek across the Mexican border in pursuit of the American dream, Reyna and her siblings are forced to live with their stern grandmother, as they wait for their parents to build the foundation of a new life. But when things don t go quite as planned, Reyna finds herself preparing for her own journey to El Otro Lado to live with the man who has haunted her imagination for years: her long-absent father. Both funny and heartbreaking,The Distance Between Us beautifully captures the struggle that Reyna and her siblings endured while trying to assimilate to a different culture, language, and family life in El Otro Lado (The Other Side).

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Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?