Oro Valley mom's children book looks at the experience of migrant families

Two hundred miles west of Mexico City, near the base of the Sierra Madres and the city of Morelia, there is a place where miracles happen … every fall.

During the months of October and November each year, millions of monarch butterflies arrive, “snowbirds” from as far north as the American Midwest.

The annual migration of monarchs will reverse course every spring, and this never-ending cycle of anticipation, joy and resignation frames a beautiful new picture book by Oro Valley author Cynthia Harmony.

Illustrated by German artist Devon Holzwarth, “A Flicker of Hope” was released in English and Spanish on Feb. 27 by Viking Penguin Random House.

Interestingly, arrestingly, it is not a story about nature. It’s a warm, father-and-daughter tale about migrants and migrant workers, each with families awaiting their return … every October and November.

“Back in 2018, when we started hearing about migrant families being separated at the border, I remember lying down next to my 3-year-old son to help him fall asleep,” Harmony recalled. “I kept thinking how fortunate I was, being an immigrant mother who was able to hold my baby close. I thought about that a lot. I wanted to tell a story about it.”

Raised in Mexico City, Harmony became an educator whose focus was childhood psychology. In addition to writing textbooks, she worked with a team that designed exhibits for children’s museums across Mexico.

She was at the Papalote Museo del Niño in Chapultepec Park when she met the man she would marry. He had been raised in Tucson. They moved here in 2010.

The stars began to align over “A Flicker of Hope” when Harmony’s sister started working with one of the three large monarch reserves near Morelia.

“I would talk to her on the phone, and she would tell me these great stories about working there,” Harmony recalled. “She sent me some incredible videos. What really got me was hearing how excited the Mazahua community got every fall, waiting for their butterflies to return.”

Fast forward to Tucson, where front-page photos in the Arizona Daily Star were showing children who had been separated from their parents at the border.

Many of them, Harmony learned, were being sheltered at the Southwest Key Center on Oracle Road. She visited one morning, hoping to volunteer.

“I thought I might be able to help,” she recalled. “I had been trained to help families and kids. I was bilingual, I had kids of my own. They were very nice, but they were focused on keeping the kids safe and finding their American families. There just wasn’t a place for me there. On the drive home, I remember being sad that I could be so close to all those kids and not being able to help them.”

In time, Harmony wondered if she might help other young children understand what these kids were going through.

She wrote a poem about them. She began a short story. But there were still all these butterflies in her head.

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One day, she realized migrant farm workers in California would return to their homes in Mexico about the same time the monarchs did.

“Somehow, my two stories just came together organically,” Harmony said. “I wanted to help kids understand the immigrant experience through the eyes of another child, so my characters became a girl and her dad. Surrounding them with butterflies really helped me tell a difficult story. The two ideas just connected somehow.”

“A Flicker of Hope” would become Harmony’s third book — following “Mi Ciudad Sings” in 2022 and “Our World: Mexico” last year — but it is clearly close to her heart.

“Since I’m an immigrant myself, these are things I think about a lot,” she said. “How can we help people understand the reality of the immigrant experience? How can we help children understand in a way that’s clear and not overwhelming? It’s not always a story that’s easy to tell, but I think we need to try.”

Fittingly, the book’s illustrator — Holzwarth — was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Panama before moving to Germany.

“The first time we met was on Zoom,” Harmony said. “She told me the day she first read my manuscript she walked outside and saw a butterfly. Obviously, we were meant to be.”

Buoyed by the success of “Flicker,” Harmony already has two new books under contract. One will release next year, the other in 2026. Two more are on the drawing board.

“You know, my first book was one I wrote for my dissertation in graduate school, and ever since my goal was writing books for younger children,” Harmony said. “It took me awhile, but it’s really fun being able to do what I’ve wanted to do for so long.”

FOOTNOTES

Attention aspiring authors: You might want to start spending time at the Oro Valley Public Library. Harmony is the second successful author to emerge from the library’s children’s section in the last 10 years. She is following in the footsteps Lori Alexander, whose latest book — “Cactus Queen” — was released in March.

The University of Arizona Poetry Center will hold its first “Summer Social” of the year Wednesday, May 15, at the Century Room at Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress. Karen Brennan will discuss her new collection, “Rabbit in the Moon: The Mexico Stories.” The program begins at 5 p.m. Learn more at tucne.ws/1py4.

“Disability Visibility” by Alice Wong will be the focus of the next Solutions Focused Community Book Club May 23 at the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, 5049 E. Broadway. Panelists will be Amanda Kraus from the UA Disability Resource Center, Kate Elliot from the Autism Society of Southern Arizona, and Jean Parker of the Colorado Cross Disability Coalition. The program will begin at 5:30 p.m. Get more info at tucne.ws/1py5.

The UA Bookstore will move to its summer schedule this week. The store will be open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. It will be closed on Sundays.