The grief keeper
(Book)

Seventeen-year-old Marisol has always dreamed of being American, learning what Americans and the US are like from television and Mrs. Rosen, an elderly expat who had employed Marisol's mother as a maid. When she pictured an American life for herself, she dreamed of a life like Aimee and Amber's, the title characters of her favorite American TV show. She never pictured fleeing her home in El Salvador under threat of death and stealing across the US border as "an illegal", but after her brother is murdered and her younger sister, Gabi's, life is also placed in jeopardy, she has no choice. She and Gabi have been caught trying to cross the border and their asylum request will most certainly be denied. With truly no options remaining, Marisol jumps at an unusual opportunity to stay in the United States by participating in an experimental study. If it means Marisol can keep her sister safe, she will risk anything.

HL610L,Lexile

Decoding demand: 95 (very high),Semantic demand: 100 (very high),Syntactic demand: 85 (very high),Structure demand: 88 (very high),Lexile