Sanctuary

Co-founder of the Women's March makes her YA debut in a near future dystopian where a young girl and her brother must escape a xenophobic government to find sanctuary.

We meet sixteen-year-old Vali on the eve of a raid of her small Vermont town that sends her, her mother, and her younger brother on the run from the Deportation Forces. In this near future America, all citizens are chipped at birth and this chip is used to track their movements from bus stops to schools to grocery stores. Vali and her mother are undocumented, but at least Vali has a counterfeit chip - that is, until it starts malfunctioning. Now on the run, Vali and her family are desperately trying to make it to California, a sanctuary state that is currently being walled off from the rest of the country. But when Vali's mother is arrested before their journey even really begins, Vali must carry on with her younger brother across the country to make it to safety in time.