I'm New Here

It's the first day of school for Marie, Jin, and Fatimah, and while for all children the First Day can be equal parts exciting, fun and nerve wracking, for these three immigrant kids (they hail from Guatemala, Korea and Somalia, respectively) there are especially big challenges.

What is it like to be a child in school who encounters a wall of words you don't understand? What must it be like to negotiate the American school lunchroom (not to mention the lunch) for the first time?

In I'm New Here, (Kirkus starred review; Kirkus 100 Best Picture Books of 2015) author/illustrator Anne Sibley O'Brien explores the "New Arrival" experience from a child's perspective with her usual insight and beautiful art.

Coming of Age as a Muslim American Teen

I met author Farhana Zia in Boston when we were both panelists at a National Council of Teachers of English conference. Lucky me! That's when I first learned of this terrific middle-grade book.

The Garden of My Imaan is about an ordinary middle-school American girl, Aliya, struggling to fit it. Well, maybe not so ordinary. In addition to dealing with mean girls and wondering if the cute guy likes her, she's navigating a visit from her ethnic grandma (the passages with grandma are pretty hilarious) and comparing herself to the seemingly-perfect Muslim girl from Morocco who appears to know herself well and be confident in her faith and culture. Meanwhile, Aliya anguishes: should she wear the hijab and appear even more different to her non-Muslim classmates? She's old enough: should she fast during Ramadan?

This is a great read for middle-school kids, not simply because the characters are delightful and their struggles real, but also because it presents lots of information about Muslim faith and how various cultures practice differently.

Muslim Teenager's Handbook

This book was designed for American Muslim teens (obviously) but I'd suggest picking up The American Muslim Teenager's Handbook if you have basic questions about Islam and how an observant person living in a Western culture would practice.

Hijab, or not? Prom, or not? Drinking, or not? Fasting during Ramadan, or not? It's all here, delivered in a kid-friendly, down-to-earth style.

The Somali Diaspora

While I was researching Out of Nowhere a friend invited me to join her to see a photography exhibit at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. We entered a room filled with the beautiful images which comprise The Somali Diaspora, a chronicle of one family's journey from the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya to resettlement in California to eventual arrival in Lewiston.

Photographer Abdi Roble, a native Somali who came to the U.S. in 1989, opens a hidden door into the lives and experiences of Somali immigrants with this book. A White House "Champion of Change," he is the executive director of the Somali Documentary Project and a visiting scholar at Ohio State University. Doug Rutledge, a poet and playwright who is also the writer for the Somali Documentary Project, contributed the essays.

Memoirs from Kenya to Maine

When I was researching Out of Nowhere, I went to Portland one evening for a reading from this collection, They Were Very Beautiful, Such Things Are. Several of the writers/contributors to this volume read from their work. It was quite the night, and this is an incredible book.

Once an isolated outpost in a desert region of northeastern Kenya, today Dadaab is the site of the largest refugee "camp" in the world, with more than 300,000 people. I use the term camp loosely, because Dadaab has grown so exponentially and residents there have remained so long, it has taken on a permanence that "camp" does not convey. It is a harsh place to dwell: daytime temperatures rarely fall below 90, summertime is often above 115, annual rains bring disastrous floods.

Beginning in 2001 Somali refugees, many who were resettled to the U.S. from Dadaab, began making their way to Lewiston, Maine. By 2008, more than 3000 Somalis lived in Lewiston: a former mill town of about 30,000, where annual winter snows of several feet are typical, and the population is predominately white, Catholic and Franco. Maine is the "whitest" state in the nation (although Vermont rivals us); Lewiston the most Franco city in the nation.

This book is a collection of voices from this unlikely merge. Unpolished, raw, and completely honest.
#RamadanReads

The Faith Club

A Muslim, a Christian, and a Jew walk into a ... sounds like the beginning of a joke, right?

It's actually a TERRIFIC book. The Faith Club: Three Women Search for Understanding, written by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver and Priscilla Warner, is an honest conversation among three women of different faiths. They don't shirk from the hard questions, and they don't always like each other's opinions or answers, but they all come to respect each other and learn from each other. Here's the summary:

In the wake of 9/11, Idliby, an American Muslim of Palestinian descent, sought out fellow mothers of the Jewish and Christian faiths to write a children's book on the commonalities among their respective traditions. In their first meeting, however, the women realized they would have to address their differences first. Oliver, an Episcopalian who was raised Catholic, irked Warner, a Jewish woman and children's author, with her description of the Crucifixion story, which sounded too much like "Jews killed Jesus" for Warner's taste. Idliby's efforts to join in on the usual "Judeo-Christian" debate tap into a sense of alienation she already feels in the larger Muslim community, where she is unable to find a progressive mosque that reflects her non–veil-wearing, spiritual Islam. The ladies come to call their group a "faith club" and, over time, midwife each other into stronger belief in their own respective religions. More Fight Club than book club, the coauthors pull no punches; their outstanding honesty makes for a page-turning read, rare for a religion nonfiction book. From Idliby's graphic defense of the Palestinian cause, Oliver's vacillations between faith and doubt, and Warner's struggles to acknowledge God's existence, almost every taboo topic is explored on this engaging spiritual ride.

If I had to say anything critical about this book it's that ... well, it's almost too easy. Look at these women: beautiful, educated, safe, upper middle class. These well-heeled "People of the Book" don't have to stretch too far to be civil, find common ground and learn from one another. A far more challenging conversation might take place among women whose religious practices are more rigid/conservative and whose educational and economic backgrounds more disparate.

Nevertheless, this book was well done and the topics important.
#RamadanReads

Warm Rain

I Remember Warm Rain is The Telling Room's first anthology, and I remember when my friend, Gail, handed it to me. I was in the early stages of writing Out of Nowhere and driving between Brunswick, Lewiston, and Portland to meet and interview kids who had arrived in Maine after their families fled war zones. While there's no substitute for actually sitting with a person and hearing his/her story over many hours and many cups of tea, not everyone has that opportunity. Or privilege.

You can do it here, with this book. Fifteen teenagers from around the world share their coming-to-America stories, and each is unique and honest. Here's the summary:

Fifteen students, from countries such as Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, and Iran are represented in our first anthology, I Remember Warm Rain. In it, you meet Ali killing hyenas and Arunda speaking to his father by phone after ten years of believing he is dead. You meet Kahiye, revealing his first experience of snow, and Stella doing something once forbidden to her, playing a game she loves: soccer. These rich stories were written as part of The Telling Room's yearlong Story House Project, a multi-media initiative built on the collaborative efforts of local artists, writers, filmmakers, sound technicians, teachers and the 15 young storytellers who bravely told their tales of leaving home in hopes of finding a new one in America.

#RamadanReads #RadicalEmpathy