The Crossroads

Jaime and Ángela fled their home in Guatemala to escape a murderous drug gang in the previous book. Now, they learn that the gang has attacked their grandmother in revenge and she's died of her injuries. Meanwhile, they can't go home because the gang will kill them. Now in the U.S., Jaime faces some bullying at school. In one traumatic episode a bully destroys a boy's Jaime's sketchbook and pees all over it. They boy punches him and gets punched back. ICE seizes and imprisons a beloved ranch worker who's lived there for 60 years but never regularized his immigration status.

Hints of growing attraction and emerging romance between Tomás and one of the kids' teachers. In the past in Guatemala, an unmarried family member gets pregnant. In the present, Jaime disapproves of cousin Ángela's behavior with her new high school friends, which involves a lot of social smooching and lap-sitting. She points out that the guy she's doing this with is just a friend and, in fact, gay. A friend from their harrowing trip, a girl who passed as a boy for safety, reappears and raises some gender-identity issues.

Occasional "pissed," "Gaawd," "what the hell," references to butts, pee, cow pies, etc. A character pees his pants because he doesn't understand what his teacher's saying when he asks to go to the bathroom.

Adult characters drink beer.