Just Like Us by Helen Thorpe Published by Scribner September 2009 $27.00US ISBN-13: 978-1416538936 ISBN-10: 1416538933

"An excellent, in-depth study of immigration policies gone amok."
--Library Journal

"Just Like Us beautifully and powerfully reminds us of the individuals whose lives lie at the center of the chaos that is our approach to immigration. Helen Thorpe has taken policy and turned it into literature."
--Malcolm Gladwell

"With a gaze that is tender and ever alert, Helen Thorpe follows the lives of four young women -- Mexican and American -- so alike in their coming-of-age, but separated by the ironies of geography, the border that cuts through the heart."
--Richard Rodriguez, author of Brown: The Last Discovery of America

"This is a penetrating, fair, and refreshingly personal examination of the passions that fuel the immigration controversy in this country. Helen Thorpe measures the arguments on both sides of this national debate against the actual human costs imposed by the status quo. This book will find a central place in this debate."
--Lawrence Wright, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

"With a perfect combination of narrative and reflection, empathy and analysis, Helen Thorpe tells both a particular story of four irresistibly engaging young women, and a universal story of the struggle between human aspiration and intractable obstacles. If this book gets widely read, our national conversation on immigration could make a shift from 'shrill and draining' to 'thoughtful and productive.' In this book, the force and power of journalism reach their peak."
--Patricia Nelson Limerick, author of The Legacy of Conquest and Something in the Soil

A powerful and moving account of four young women from Mexico who have lived most of their lives in the United States and attend the same high school. Two of them have legal documentation and two do not. Just Like Us is their story.

A stunning work of in-depth journalism in the tradition of Random Family, Helen Thorpe's Just Like Us takes us deep into an American subculture -- that of Mexican immigrants -- largely hidden from the mainstream. We meet four girls on the eve of their senior prom, in Denver, Colorado. Each is bright and ambitious and an excellent student. Their leader, Marisela, dazzles teachers during the day and spends her evenings checking groceries to help pay the bills. She dreams of college and a professional career -- but she doesn't have a green card or a Social Security number because her parents brought her across the border illegally.

Marisela's best friend, Yadira, shares her predicament. But they spend all of their time with two girls who are legal -- Elissa, who was born in the United States, and Clara, who has a green card. Each of the girls views the others as her equals, yet the world does not treat them that way.

Their situation becomes increasingly painful and complex as the four young women approach adulthood, and Marisela and Yadira watch their two legal friends gain opportunities that are not available to them. All four hold American aspirations, but only Clara and Elissa have the documents necessary to realize those hopes. Their friendship starts to divide along lines of immigration status.

Then a political firestorm begins. An illegal immigrant commits a horrendous crime in Denver, and a local congressman seizes on the act as proof of all that is wrong with American society. Arguments over immigration rage fiercely, and the girls' lives play out against a backdrop of intense debate over whether they have any right to live in the country where they have grown up.

This brilliant, fast-paced work of narrative journalism is a vivid coming-of-age story about girlhood, friendship, and, most of all, identity -- what it means to fake an identity, steal an identity, or inherit an identity from one's parents and country. No matter what one's opinions are about immigration, Just Like Us offers fascinating insight into one of our most complicated social issues today. The girls, their families, those who welcome them, and those who object to their presence all must grapple with the same deep dilemma: Who is an American? Who gets to live in America? And what happens when we don't agree?

About the Author
Helen Thorpe is a freelance journalist whose magazine stories have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, New York magazine, Texas Monthly, Westword, and 5280.

Born in London, she grew up in Medford, New Jersey. She graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor’s degree in English literature, and obtained a master’s in the same subject from Columbia University. Thorpe has worked for The New York Observer; The New Yorker, where she wrote “Talk of the Town” stories; and Texas Monthly. She was hired by Walt Disney movie studio to report on the murder of Irish journalist Veronica Guerin, and a film based on that treatment was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Joel Schumacher. She has also produced several radio stories, including a short piece that aired on This American Life and a half-hour radio documentary that aired on KGNU and Soundprint.

Thorpe is married to John Hickenlooper, the mayor of Denver, and they have one son. She currently serves on the boards of two non-profit organizations that focus on ensuring the success of all children, particularly those who are growing up in poverty (the Clayton Foundation and the Colorado Children’s Campaign). Just Like Us is her first book.

Visit the author's web site at www.helenthorpe.com