Author Visits 7th Grade

The students recently finished reading Cisneros’ Efrén Divided in English class and were excited to get a chance to have the author answer their questions about his inspiration for the characters, the setting, and the story itself. The novel centers on a young boy whose undocumented parents work hard to provide for their family. When Efrén’s mother is deported, his life is suddenly turned upside down. Cisneros, who is also an 8th grade teacher, started writing the book in 2016 after seeing how policies and harmful rhetoric were affecting his community. He explained that he wanted to instill a sense of pride in the Latino community as well as “focus on the loss. It broke my heart to see students whose parents were taken away...I wanted Efrén to become empowered, because that is the same thing I wanted for my students.”