Selah and her best friend, Ami, look nothing alike and hail from very different neighborhoods, but that doesn’t stop them from becoming best friends. They even mix and match their lunches, with Selah swapping her mom’s homemade arroz con pollo for Ami’s packaged cookies. The only snag in their friendship? Ami isn’t allowed to cross the log bridge that spans from Meadow Park to Selah’s neighborhood. According to her dad, Mr. Thrash, it’s a dangerous place, full of criminals. Selah, of course, disagrees. She doesn’t see danger; she sees neighbors walking down sidewalks and visiting Mr. Rodriguez’s corner store. She doesn’t see criminals; she sees kids of all backgrounds playing hopscotch together. On the day Ami defies her father and steps onto the log bridge, many things begin to break: Ami’s arm, Selah and Ami’s friendship, and the ties that once connected their two communities. What’s more, Mr. Thrash becomes determined to build a fence between Meadow Park and Selah’s “dangerous” neighborhood. Facing the prospect of losing her best friend and her favorite park, Selah takes action by tapping into her most valuable resource: her community. But can she gather enough support to defeat Mr. Thrash’s proposal to build a fence? And will she ever mend the rift between herself and Ami? All she can do is speak her truth and count on people to see the humanity in others.
