By Toni Duval
1) Finding Home: The Journey of Immigrants and Refugees, by Jen Sookfong Lee and illustrated by Drew Shannon (Middle Grade Nonfiction)
From war zones to politics, there are many reasons why people have always searched for a place to call home. In Finding Home: The Journey of Immigrants and Refugees, we discover how human migration has shaped our world. We explore its origins and the current issues facing immigrants and refugees today, and we hear the first-hand stories of people who have moved across the globe looking for safety, security and happiness. Author Jen Sookfong Lee shares her personal experience of growing up as the child of immigrants and gives a human face to the realities of being an immigrant or refugee today.
2) Zara Hossain Is Here by Sabina Khan (Young Adult Novel)
Ever since her family moved to Texas from Pakistan when she was a baby, seventeen-year-old Zara Hossain has only ever called Corpus Christi home. Being the only Muslim girl at her conservative Catholic school, blending in isn’t really an option, especially with people like Tyler Benson always tormenting her.
But one day Tyler takes things too far by defacing Zara’s locker with a racist message, which gets him suspended. As an act of revenge, Tyler and his friends vandalize the Hossains’ house with Islamophobic graffiti, which leads to a violent crime that puts Zara and her family’s entire future at risk. Now she must choose between fighting to stay in the only place she’s ever called home and losing the life she loves and everyone in it.
Zara Hossain is Here is a timely and intimate novel about what it means to be an immigrant in America today and the endurance of hope and faith in the face of hate.
3) Sade: We’re Moving to Canada! by Yewande Daniel-Ayoade (Picture Book)
Want to teach your kids about dealing with change while learning a new culture? Then Sade: We’re Moving to Canada is the right book for you.
In this first book in the series, Sade receives news that her family is moving from Nigeria to Canada. Everyone is excited, except Sade. She is upset about leaving her best friend, missing her favorite TV show, not getting to harvest her guavas, and not being able to collect fresh eggs from the family chickens.
Sade decides her only option is to ruin the family’s plans. Will she succeed? Or will she come to accept that change is a part of life?
Ardo Omer