While the other children laughed, Maya understands that fear and danger are very different for immigrants from some countries. She also is incredibly aware of how other students’ cultures affect perception and when she is called to the principal’s office (to deal with the problem of her brother fighting), she recalls how a student who came from Cambodia was filled with real fear after being sent. Maya is dying for normal teenage things, like being able to go to a dance and dance with a boy, but it is not considered appropriate in her culture. Maya and her family have come from Kazakhstan. My Favorite Chaperone – by Jean Davies Okimoto There are deaths in Venezuela due to the fightingįrightening or Intense Things – Mostly it is just sad reading about people leaving their homes without their belongings and pets. Sex, Nudity, Dating – Amina misses her boyfriend and has love notes from him and thinks of kissing him.ĭeath, Violence and Gore – Amina’s father died on a fishing boat during a storm. My only real criticism of this one is that sometimes Regan uses somewhat broken English as though she’s writing in Amina’s voice, and sometimes she does not. Uprooted and sent to Texas, Amina misses her whole life, especially her grandparents and her boyfriend. Venezuelans are caught in the middle, but Amina’s stepfather works for an American oil company and American’s are even more likely to be targeted in the violence. There is fighting between different factions, those that want Chavez out and those that support him. Second Culture Kids begins in Venezuela as Chavez is trying to hold control of the government. Once he thinks of drinking beer.įrightening or Intense Things – There is a great deal of danger for Mario, but as this book is aimed at older children nothing should be too nerve-wracking for them unless you are in a place where children may be personally familiar with this type of experience. Sex, Nudity, Dating – After his first crossing Mario says he feels like he’s been molested, but he is not speaking of any sexual contact.ĭeath, Violence and Gore – Marco remembers stories he’s heard of immigrants dying during the border crossing, in particular of 17 Mexicans that were killed in a truck accident.ĭrugs, Alcohol and Smoking – Marco waits in front of a liquor store. Ryan does a decent job of providing sufficient context for understanding. Like many books about immigration this does contain foreign words (Spanish in this case). First Crossing is also fascinating to me because while the men in the story are clearly working in the US, for many the goal is not citizenship, they simply want a better life for their families in Mexico, and must earn US dollars to have that. This story is aimed at slightly older children and handles the very controversial topic of illegal immigration from Mexico and border crossings. Recognize the author? She’s written the incredible book Esperanza Rising about the Mexican immigrant experience. While a greater variety of stories are more available now, it’s rare to see so many covered so well. I felt like for a long time I could only get my hands on stories about Russian Jewish immigrants or good old English settler types. This is also fabulous because of the range of countries represented. It is another thing entirely to have them discuss more current issues like illegal border crossing from Mexico. It is easy for children to look at the immigrant experience through the lense of history and decide what was fair and unfair. So many immigration stories are historical fiction. I’ll be covering the volume in two parts, 5 stories today, 5 next time. I’m going to do the content ratings separately by story since many teachers pull individual pieces for class. First Crossing is an anthology of short stories about immigration, which includes works by some fabulous authors.
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