Return to Sender

In the first section of Chapter 1, “Bad-Luck Farm,” 11-year-old Tyler Paquette learns that his parents hired new workers to help on the family farm. The workers are from Mexico; they are not Native American workers as he initially assumes.

It’s been a summer of change for Tyler; his grandfather passed away of a heart attack in the middle of June; his father’s tractor accident left him incapacitated for farm work; his parents, faced with financial hardship, began discussing the need to sell the farm. The thought of selling made Tyler very upset: “How could he explain to [his mother] that the family farm was not just Dad’s, it was the whole family’s, going all the way back before Gramps, as well as forward, his and Sara’s and Ben’s, even if they didn’t want it?” (9). To distract him from the upset at home, Tyler’s mother sent him to visit with Aunt Roxy and Uncle Tony in Boston for a month.

Now Tyler is home and hopeful to hear that with the new workers’ help, they might be able to keep the farm. He is relieved but full of questions. Mom tells Tyler how the workers are “separated from their families for years” (14) as they migrate throughout the US looking for work.