Journey Through an Arid Land (PB) (2015)

Wiona Rutherford is barely keeping her head above the dust as she struggles to manage her dilapidated ranch, located in the arid, mountain corridor that is the border between Mexico and Southeast Arizona, is a major crossing for illegal aliens. Although Wiona is sympathetic to those who undertake this dangerous journey, she is sick to death of the damage they leave behind. Then she comes upon a lone woman and her just born baby on the cold ground under an oak tree. Gayle Jandrey has created an enthralling human drama... Stokey, a veteran Border Agent, patrols a Darwinian landscape of desperate migrant travelers seeking a better life and the malevolent human coyotes that exploit them. - Cameron Hintzen, Assistant Chief Patrol Agent U.S. Border Patrol (retired) For many years G. Davies Jandrey worked at Tucson Magnet High School, where many of her students were undocumented Mexican nationals. In addition, she worked as a fire lookout in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeast Arizona. These mountains, heavily traveled by drug mules and undocumented immigrants, form a backdrop for Journey though an Arid Land.