Martha P’s Reviews > First Crossing: Stories About Teen Immigrants > Status Update

In the short story Lines of Scrimmage, Ameen is discriminated by the other football teams he plays against. Ameen has dreamed all his life on becoming the quarter back, but because he’s Arabic many discriminate him. I believe the discrimination will not stop Ameen from becoming what he wants and will stay in the team, and bring them to state championship. thanks to the talk he had with Jeremy.

In the story Pulling Up stakes the author David Lubar does a really good job describing the settings. He gives such good details that you can visualize it in your mind. For example “far off, I noticed a glow in the horizon. Everyone became quiet. Jones had told me that when the sun rose, the whole crowd would cheer.” Parts of the story like this one makes you visualize the setting.

"It was as though I had fallen from the bars, crashing down onto the street, where I splintered into a million pieces." I chose this golden gem from My favorite Chaperone by Jean Davies Okimoto because this little piece of the story shows a lot of the main character Maya. It shows how her life is always being destroyed by her family’s ways of living and customs.

Inside the stories of First Crossing two characters have very similar situations. for example Marco from the first story was a young boy that after being in the united stated he regret the decision of leaving his mom and sister in Mexico. Amina from the second story also regretted leaving his family and friends in Venezuela.I can relate to both of them because i know how it feels to leave your family behind.