My Uncle Is Coming Tomorrow

Curriculum Guide for Teachers and Parents Available (Download/See All)

A powerful introduction to forced disappearances for readers 10 and up. 

View References and Further Information on Enforced Disappearances

Bilingual Edition Here

By a closed door, a child waits for his uncle, who is coming to stay. As he waits, he imagines all the fun things they’ll do when he arrives: his uncle can teach him how to block a penalty shot and the boy can show him how well he is doing in school. But his uncle never arrives. Page by page, the boy grows older sitting in the same position, waiting to show his uncle his degree, his son, and eventually, his granddaughter. And still, his uncle does not come. 

With short, impactful text, My Uncle Is Coming Tomorrow is dedicated to the forcibly disappeared who were never able to come home, and depicts the devastating impact on their loved ones who are left behind.

An excellent resource for learning about the history of forced disappearances, this gentle but effective book includes an afterword that explains the act of “disappearing people”: how it developed over the course of the twentieth century as a tool of political terror, and how people continue to be disappeared today.

An Aldana Libros Book, Greystone Kids

Sebastián Santana Camargo is an illustrator, graphic designer, animator and visual artist who has published books throughout Latin America. He has won prizes for his work on the animated film AninA, and the Paul Cezanne Visual Arts Prize in 2018. The Argentinian edition of My Uncle Is Coming Tomorrow won the Grand Prize from ALIJA (IBBY Argentina) and the Argentina Prize for best illustrated book.

Elisa Amado was born in Guatemala, where more than 200,000 people were killed or disappeared during the Cold War. She emigrated to Canada in 1971.