On Monday, Oct. 10, the Memorial Murrell Library had a guest speaker. That guest speaker was Marie Marquardt, a young adult literature author. Marquardt does not only write young adult novels, but she is also an immigration advocate. “All the heated political red wing we hear about the 11 million undocumented immigrants trying to live in the United States, all the numbers, they don’t connect us to the everyday reality,” said Marquardt. “I started to think a great deal about the relationship between these really tough political issues that we’re living in the middle of. There’s so contentious and everyone has strong feelings and opinions. The everyday reality of walking day by day, in the shoes of someone who’s living that.” So far, Marquardt …show more content…
“We began going out and giving talks, much like this one, but with lots and lots of data.”
After she had spent several years focusing on research and statistics, Marquardt became inspired to create her own stories that would allow young adults to be able to relate to an undocumented immigrants, especially through love stories. In “Dreams Comes True,” the undocumented girl falls in love with a boy, who is a white-privileged United States citizen. However, when the boy realizes that the world is not as approving of undocumented immigrants, his love for the girl becomes more difficult, like your modern day of “Romeo and Juliet,” but not as drastic.
“I wrote this book, and my second book which is coming out in January, to give readers the opportunity to experience the story of one, undocumented girl and the boy who loves her and to experience that intimately, just to live inside of it for awhile and to know it in a different way,” said Marquardt. “My only hope is that after reading ‘Dreams Comes True’ people might see this big issue through new and different