A novelist and professor, Lyll Becerra de Jenkins skillfully intertwined the personal with the political in both her life and her life's work. As an author of short stories and novels for young adults, de Jenkins wanted "to awaken a political conscience in young people," as she once told Publishers Weekly. Contributing to de Jenkins' own political awareness was her father--a politically outspoken judge and journalist in his native country of Colombia.

Growing up in Colombia, de Jenkins had not understood the political battles that her father fought with such graveness. Her move to the United States, however, clarified de Jenkins' memories of her father's activism. The relocation, after thirty-seven years in Colombia, provided de Jenkins with distance and room to be critical, allowing the writer to recognize that her political beliefs conflicted with those of the Colombian oligarchy. In a Booklist interview with her editor, Rosemary Brosnan...