num_pages: 128
description: Manny Bustos is an orphan, scrabbling for survival on the streets of Juáurez, Mexico. He sleeps in a cardboard box and fights with boys bigger and older than him for the coins American tourists through off the bridge between El Paso, Texas, and his town.Across the border, Sergeant Robert S. Locke, Vietnam vet and Army prefect, searches for a way to drown the cries for help of his dead friends, and finds it in Cutty Sark whiskey. On the night Manny dares the crossing, through the muddy shallows of the Rio Grande, past searchlights and border patrol, in the hopes of a better life, the two meet in an explosive encounter that fills the night with tension and endless possibilities.
language: English
title: The Crossing
titlecomplete: The Crossing
genres: Middle Grade, Young Adult, Childrens, Survival, Adventure, Poverty, War, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Realistic Fiction
ratings_count: 1174
awards: awardedAt: 852105600000
name: Margaret A. Edwards Award
publisher: Laurel Leaf