Who Belongs Here?: An American Story, Edition 2
About this ebook
Who Belongs Here? tells the story of a boy who, having been forced to flee his war-torn country, struggles to be accepted by his new classmates in the U.S. Some kids think he should go back where he belongs, but what if everyone whose family came from another place was forced to return to his or her homeland? Who would be left?
A new introduction traces the waves of immigration that have built America and celebrates the Muslim and Latino immigrants who are today contributing to America’s future. The book’s new cover shows a group of kids—sons and daughters of newly arrived immigrants--taking their oath of citizenship. This story is more timely now than ever.
Long an anchor text for school units on immigration and tolerance, Who Belongs Here? is now renewed in look and content. Teaching compassion for recent immigrants while sharing the important contributions made by immigrants of the past, this story is more relevant now than ever.
In this probing, plain-spoken book, based on a true story, Margy Burns Knight and Anne Sibley O'Brien, author and illustrator of the acclaimed "Talking Walls," invite young readers to explore the human implications of intolerance. Anecdotes relating the experiences of other refugees and their contributions to American culture play counterpoint to Nary's tale, all enlivened by O'Brien's full-color pastels. A compendium at the end of the book offers more detailed information about Pol, Pot, Ellis Island, and other topics in this text.
Who Belongs Here? will lead to discussions about
- The effects of war on children and families
- Refugees and relocation processes in the U.S.Cambodian culture
- U.S. History and attitudes towards immigration
- Bullying and intolerance
- Conflict-resolution skills
Lexile Level 1040
Fountas and Pinnell Level W
About the author
Margy Burns Knight is a children’s book author and educator. She received the National Education Association’s Author Illustrator Human and Civil Rights Award and is a Peace Corps veteran. She lives in Maine, where she serves on the board of her local library and coordinates Let’s Talk, a conversational English class for resettled refugees.
ANNE SIBLEY O’BRIEN has illustrated 31 books, including Talking Walls, and is the author and illustrator of the picture book I’m New Here and the graphic novel The Legend of Hong Kil Dong. Annie’s passion for multiracial, multicultural, and global subjects grew out of her experience of being raised bilingual and bicultural in South Korea as the daughter of medical missionaries. She writes the column “The Illustrator’s Perspective” for the Bulletin of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and a blog, “Coloring Between the Lines.” The mother of two grown children, she lives with her husband on an island in Maine.
