Return to Sender in my opinion is a must read for everyone.  Regardless of one's feelings about immigration and illegal aliens, it will give one pause to rethink old beliefs.  Julia Alvarez does a wonderful job of telling a story in such a realistic way.  This book could easily be a true story.  She includes not just the big picture of illegally being in the United States, but the smaller, more personal, issues of bullying and internal conflict on the part of young children.  The family of illegal Mexican workers includes two U.S. born daughters who don't want to move back to Mexico.  In a quite natural progression, the characters in the story slowly begin to change their deep feelings about illegal aliens.  They see these people as human beings trying to survive rather than criminals who are trying to invade our country.  There are people in the story on both sides of the issue, right up until the end.

This book left me wanting to read a sequel!  Because of the ending, it would be a very easy thing to do.  If this was a movie, I know there would be a sequel to it.  If nothing else, students would easily write their own sequel after completing this story.  I would love to read them.