--Kirkus Reviews

On a warm, starry night, the pathways of migrating animals are blocked by the "ugly scar" of a border wall. Creatures seeking mates and food and grounds to roam find themselves blocked, imperiling "some of the richest habitats of North America." Lush, nature-attentive illustrations flesh out this somber reality, depicting Sonoran desert stretches in shadow and sun, ocelots and other fauna with glowing eyes, and tempting spaces just beyond the creatures' reach, alerting young readers to the ranging consequences of choosing to block borders off.

--Foreword Reviews

On a shadowy night, a young ocelot makes his way south in search of a mate, but his trip abruptly ends when he comes to a giant wall: "where protective plants once stood, an ugly scar now stretches." Unable to squeeze through the wall's slats or gain traction on its slippery sides, the ocelot turns back and becomes one of many animals whose environment has been radically changed by the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. The book then walks viewers through the deserts, forests, and grasslands that surround the wall, emphasizing that the border is completely arbitrary and nonexistent in the environment. Its effects, however, are quite real, dividing breeding grounds, disrupting migratory patterns, and upending ecosystems. Simple, direct text gives the book broad accessibility, and an author's note offers more specifics on the building of the border wall and the animals endangered both by its presence and other manmade threats. Suggestions for activism, a glossary, and further resources are included.

-- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books