Known as the land of opportunities, America is a place where many different people come together on common ground. Throughout history, immigrants have made their way to this country and a new way of life in an effort to live their dreams.
In Minding Ben by Victoria Brown, we follow the life of Grace Canton. She is a young woman from a very small village in Trinidad, who has chosen to emigrate in order to reach that golden ring. Leaving her home and making her way to New York is a difficult task. Her mother does not want her to leave but her father wants to live her dream. The pressure is uncomfortable, but the trip is on. She is to meet a relative when she reaches the states, one who can give her a place to live until she can find a job and set up a new home.
However, not everything happens the way it is supposed to. Grace's relative does not show, leaving her on her own in a city larger than she ever imagined possible, and a place she has never been. Finding a home with Sylvia, another expatriate of Trinidad, performing small chores and watching her children, Grace continues to look for that job, the one that will allow her to become a citizen.
Finding what she expects is the perfect job, minding their son Ben, Grace accepts a job with a wealthy family, the Bruckner’s. Maintaining her relationship with Sylvia, living at her home when not at the new live-in job, she continues to do chores and watch Sylvia’s brood when she is able. Is this really her dream, her opportunity to become a citizen, and make a living wage?
Grace is a young naive woman from another country; she is open and optimistic, and easy to take advantage of. She is loving and enjoys looking after children, and does not mind the other things that usually come with that type of job. She often receives notes, and occasionally a call from her mother, using subtle pressure to get her home. When her beloved father becomes ill, the pressure mounts. She plans on staying here, though, as her new employers have offered to back her for her dream of citizenship. What she finds, though, is entirely different from the promises they have offered.
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