Emiliano locates the Big Dipper and then traces an imaginary line until he gets to the five brightest stars in the constellation Cassiopeia. He’s always liked that constellation. Brother Patricio taught him how to find it during their trip to the Sierra Tarahumara. But the night has to be dark for Cassiopeia to be seen.
Maybe there’ll be a park in Chicago where the stars of Cassiopeia will shine.
I would like to thank Marcos Paredes of Rio Aviation and Jen Peña of Jen Peña Photography for sharing with me their love, knowledge, and experience of Big Bend National Park; Ramon Santini for his company and friendship as we explored this most beautiful park; Joseph Borkowski for his general guidance on IT issues; and Sara Fajardo and Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa for helping me to see with greater clarity the beauty and pain of Ciudad Juárez and its people. I am forever grateful to Faye Bender, my agent at the Book Group, for her unwavering faith in my work, and Cheryl Klein, my editor at Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic, who continuously makes me a better writer and person.
Francisco X. Stork is the author of six novels, including Marcelo in the Real World, which received five starred reviews and won the Schneider Family Book Award; The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, winner of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award from ALAN; The Memory of Light, which received four starred reviews; and Irises. He lives near Boston with his family. You can find him on the web at www.franciscostork.com and @StorkFrancisco.