Guatemalan-born Canadian author Amado (What Are You Doing? 2011) "has known many people whose lives have been disrupted, if not destroyed, by the conflicts that have occurred [in Guatemala] since the 1950s," her author's bio reveals. That violence continues in the Northern Triangle of Central America atemala, El Salvador, Honduras om which 200,000-plus unaccompanied children have fled. Thirteen-year-old Manuelito is one of them; his parents hope to save him from the armed militia, gangs, and soldiers controlling their small village. Manuelito and best friend Coco Loco are sent with a coyote human trafficker cross into Mexico, but the coyote betrays them both. Through the kindness of similarly on-the-run strangers, Manuelito enters the U.S. to join his aunt in New York. Safety, alas, is short-lived. Illustrator Urias Salvadoran-born, now U.S.-based ptures Manuelito's journey in raw black-and-white sketches, mirroring the dangerous urgency with quick, broad strokes. He directs detailed attention to close-ups of faces, directing focus toward the individual humanity of desperate refugees. Their situations prove dire, and neither author nor artist holds back in presenting the life-and-death scenarios unrelentingly happening now.

Fleeing from violence at home, 13-year-old Manuelito braves the journey through Mexico to the United States.As the repercussions of war fade away, Manuelito's Guatemalan village returns to normality. School resumes (even though Manuelito finds it tedious), and he finds plenty of time to play with friends, including Coco Loco. Suddenly, a new kind of war commences. Menacing, armed groups begin to disrupt village life: the PACs (Armed Civil Patrol); the maras, gangs of tattooed men; and government soldiers. To avoid gang recruitment or death, Manuelito's parents send him off to Tía Adela, who resides in the U.S. Joined by Coco Loco, Manuelito arrives in Mexico following a river crossing only to fall prey to the Coyote. Setbacks bombard the young boy, but he eventually crosses the Río Bravo into the U.S., where he surrenders himself to Border Patrol as an asylum seeker. Just as Manuelito begins anew in the U.S., the arrival of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement derails his life yet again. An undercurrent of tragic inevitability in the text lends urgency to Manuelito's narration, which delineates the circumstances of his escape without wallowing in sentimentality. The author's preference for universal appeal posits Manuelito as a symbol of child refugees; as a result, the novel loses that extra spark that would make this story more memorable. Meanwhile, the stark, colorless illustrations hint at grueling ordeals.A blunt, effective record of the refugee crisis that's wounding the Americas. (afterword) (Graphic novel. 12-15)