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by: Julia Alvarez
Recommended Age: YA
Lexile: 890L
Sensitive Content: Dictatorship
Before We Were Free follows 12-year-old Anita's life in the final days of the 31-year-long-Trujillo Dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in the 1960s. Anita has always felt safe in her home. Always surrounded by family, friends and relatives, who can't be? But by her 12th birthday in 1960, most of Anita's family have emigrated to the US, in light of the brutal Trujillo dictatorship. Her Tío Toni has disappeared without a trace, and the government's secret police, SIM, endanger her remaining family because of their work in the underground movement to overthrow El Jefe (Trujillo) Using the strength and courage of her family, Anita must conquer her fears and fly free to freedom, leaving everything that she knew, leaving her whole life behind.
What I Thought:
This has easily become one of the best books I've read, so far, in 2021. To be honest, before reading Before We Were Free, I didn't even know of the infamous Trujillo Dictatorship. In the Historical Fiction category, you'll see that most of the books that I have read are about World War 2. I am glad I got to know more about the history and read this book, because, in the Author's Note, Ms. Alvarez notes that this story is a bit based on the true events of others and her family's experience. At times, it was a bit heavy, given how bad and brutal the Trujillo Dictatorship was. Read this book to see how Anita flies free in Before We Were Free.
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