Available:*
Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33607001873655 | Picture Books | BUNTING | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Farah feels alone, even when surrounded by her classmates. She listens and nods but doesn't speak. It's hard being the new kid in school, especially when you're from another country and don't know the language. Then, on a field trip to an apple orchard, Farah discovers there are lots of things that sound the same as they did at home, from dogs crunching their food to the ripple of friendly laughter. As she helps the class make apple cider, Farah connects with the other students and begins to feel that she belongs.
Ted Lewin's gorgeous sun-drenched paintings and Eve Bunting's sensitive text immediately put the reader into another child's shoes in this timely story of a young Muslim immigrant.
Author Notes
Eve Bunting was born in 1928 in Maghera, Ireland, as Anne Evelyn Bunting. She graduated from Northern Ireland's Methodist College in Belfast in 1945 and then studied at Belfast's Queen's College. She emigrated with her family in 1958 to California, and became a naturalized citizen in 1969.
That same year, she began her writing career, and in 1972, her first book, "The Two Giants" was published. In 1976, "One More Flight" won the Golden Kite Medal, and in 1978, "Ghost of Summer" won the Southern California's Council on Literature for Children and Young People's Award for fiction. "Smokey Night" won the American Library Association's Randolph Caldecott Medal in 1995 and "Winter's Coming" was voted one of the 10 Best Books of 1977 by the New York Times.
Bunting is involved in many writer's organizations such as P.E.N., The Authors Guild, the California Writer's Guild and the Society of Children's Book Writers. She has published stories in both Cricket, and Jack and Jill Magazines, and has written over 150 books in various genres such as children's books, contemporary, historic and realistic fiction, poetry, nonfiction and humor.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-As a Muslim girl rides in a hay wagon heading to an apple orchard on a class trip, the dupatta on her head setting her apart, she observes that while some of the children seem friendly, others are not. Her father has explained, "-we are not always liked here. Our home country (never named in the story) and our new one have had difficulties." Later, when she puts a green apple into the cider press instead of a ripe red one as her classmates have done, they protest. But the cider from all their apples mixed together is delicious-a metaphor for the benefits of intermingling people who are different. Lewin's watercolors radiate sunlight and capture the gamut of emotions that Farah experiences on this challenging second day in her new school in the U.S. They show her downcast silence and sense of isolation because she can't speak the language, her shy smile when a classmate befriends her, and, finally, her triumphant smile as she speaks one of her first English words, "App-ell." This story, along with Bernard Wolf's Coming to America: A Muslim Family's Story (Lee & Low, 2003), can heighten youngsters' awareness of what it must be like to feel different and alone and that each person has something unique to contribute to the good of all.-Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Bunting (Fly Away Home) once again delves into a timely social topic with a straightforward, rather simplistic treatment-in this instance, the integration of an immigrant child into a rural setting. Farah, on her second day of school, goes on a field trip to an apple orchard. "I think it odd to have boys and girls sit together. It was not like this in my village." Her first-person narration gives the story authenticity, making readers privy to a newcomer's feelings of confusion and frustration. After her teacher explains that Farah is to pick only one apple, the girl chooses a hard, presumably unripe one from a tree that "is small and alone, like me." She notices many things: her classmates' smiles (some unfriendly, some warmer); how her dupatta (head scarf) is the only thing that sets her clothing apart from her peers; and how the sounds she hears (laughter, a classmate belching) are universal. Lewin's light-filled watercolors often resemble photographs, especially when depicting the students. Though Farah's insightfulness seems beyond her years, the symbolism of her green apple and the students' apple cider as a "melting pot" comes across as thoughtful, not overdone. Ages 5-8. (June) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.