This excerpt explains that families are defined by love, caring and sharing, not the number or gender of its members.

Sean McCollum gives an account of writer Julia Alvarez's move to the United States from the Dominican Republic as a young girl. Although Alvarez struggled to fit in in this unfamiliar place, she finally found a comfortable niche in her writing.

“My father went to work in a chocolate factory. When he'd come home, his hair was all full of chocolate; his pillows were all brown.”