A review by backonthealex
Mama's Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation by Edwidge Danticat

5.0

Saya, a young Haitian American girl, misses her mother more than anything. But her mother is being held in an immigration detention center. Saya and her father visit her mother every week, but she still misses her so much that each day she listens to the message her mother put on their phone's answer machine. One day, she accidentally erased the message and can no longer her her mother's voice. Then, Saya received a cassette tape in the mail, and that night she falls asleep listening to her mother singing, then telling her a bedtime story. Meanwhile, Saya's father writes letters to everyone - judges, politicians, TV reporters - all to no avail. One day, Saya asks to write her story, too. A few days later, a newspaper reporter calls and wants to talk to Saya. Her story is published, and is even told on TV. Her mother gets a hearing in front of a judge, is allowed to go home and wait there for her papers to be processed. This is, above all, a story about the impact that removing an undocumented parent who has committed no crimes has on her family. In 2015, when it was published, this book held possibility and hope for families caught in these circumstances. In 2017, that hope is gone, but the negative impact on a child remains. Staub's oil painted illustrations are colorful and whimsical, with blues and pinks predominating and reflecting a Haitian folk art style.