The Distance Between Us: Young Readers Edition

Reyna Grande is a Mexican American author. She was born in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico in 1975 to Juana Rodríguez and Natalio Grande. When she was two, her father left her and her family behind in order to make money for the family in the United States. Two years later, her mother joined him in California, leaving Reyna and her siblings with their paternal grandmother.

Although both of her parents later returned to Mexico, Reyna’s early childhood experiences were defined by longing and loneliness. She has since gone on to incorporate her childhood experiences in Mexico and her immigration to the United States at nine years old into her novels and memoirs. In her Author’s Note in the source text, Grande explains that she wrote The Distance Between Us because she believes “that immigrant children have important stories that need to be told” (ii). The memoir is Grande’s self-declared way of “shed[ding] light on the controversial issue of immigration” (ii).

The Distance Between Us also captures Grande’s personal love for, and belief in, the power of writing and storytelling. Throughout the memoir, she details the ways in which her love for reading and learning helped her to survive many difficulties. After immigrating to the United States, Grande earned a BA degree in literature/creative writing from UC Santa Cruz and her MFA in creative writing from Antioch University. In the years since completing her education, she has published the novels Across a Hundred Mountains and Dancing with Butterflies, as well as the memoir A Dream Called Home and an adult edition of the memoir The Distance Between Us. She won an International Literacy Association Children’s Book Award for the Young Reader’s Edition of the memoir.