Undocumented: A Dominican Boy's Odyssey from a Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League - Tapa blanda

Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Undocumented is an impassioned counterargument to those who feel, as did some of Peralta's more xenophobic classmates that "illegals" are good-for-nothings who take jobs from Americans and deserve to be kicked out of the country. No one who reads this story of a brilliant young man and his proud mother will automatically equate undocumented immigrant with idle parasite. That stereotype is something else we shouldn't take for granted."

New York Daily News
"Undocumented is not meant to be a 'whole hood-boy-in richy-rich-school saga.' Peralta is merely determined to put another face to the undocumented millions, that of the son of an illegal who reached the highest pinnacle of privileged education."

Publishers Weekly:
"Part memoir, part confessional, and part coming-of-age tale, Peralta's story holds several truths on the road through loss, sacrifice, and achievement to gaining his slice of the American dream."

Kirkus Reviews
"An impassioned and honest memoir... Underscores the need for comprehensive immigration reform."

Library Journal
"Peralta's simple and unadorned yet fast-moving narrative provides an insightful read for anyone passionate about immigration reform."

Booklist
"Peralta offers an inspiring personal story of the hardships faced by undocumented families."

Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter, President of the New America Foundation
"Dan-el Padilla Peralta's story is as compulsively readable as a novel, an all-American tall tale that just happens to be true. From homeless shelter to Princeton, Oxford, and Stanford, through the grace not only of his own hard work but his mother's discipline and care, he documents the America we should still aspire to be."

Julia Alvarez, author of In the Time of the Butterflies and A Wedding in Haiti
"Dan-el Padilla Peralta's Undocumented should be required reading for every congressman addressing legislation on immigration and for anyone who believes the American dream should not be a nightmare for those who are now faceless, homeless, and helpless in our midst. It should be required reading in our schools, not just to educate the new leaders of America on these issues, but to inspire them to tell lively stories that captivate the imagination, inform the mind, and move the heart to act."

A Princeton University salutatorian describes his experiences as an undocumented immigrant youth in New York City, relating his efforts as a scholarship student in a private school that sharply contrasted with his street life in East Harlem. 30,000 first printing.