Good Fortune: My Journey to Gold Mountain

Good Fortune: My Journey to Gold Mountain

Written by: Li Keng Wong

Junior High and High School Grades

"An elementary school teacher for 35 years tells about her family's journey to America, their interrogation at Angel Island, and the difficult life they faced in Oakland, CA, where her father ran an illegal lottery business. Paw Paw worked in Gold Mountain and sent money home. One day, the author, her two sisters, and their mother received a letter announcing that they would be returning with him after his next visit. The family studied the papers that he sent to prepare them for the difficult questions they would be asked upon their arrival. Particularly worrisome was the fact that Paw Paw wasn't allowed to bring his wife to America, so she would be posing as his sister. This memoir clearly shows the hardships, sacrifices, and eventual successes of the Chinese families who came to America during the Depression."

School Library Journal Review

Online Resources:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/asian-american/angel_island/

Grandfather's Journey

Grandfather's Journey

Written and Illustrated by: Allen Say

Upper Elementary and Junior High Grades

"Through compelling reminiscences of his grandfather's life in America and Japan, Allen Say gives us a poignant account of a family's unique cross-cultural experience. He warmly conveys his own love for his two countries, and the strong and constant desire to be in both places at once."

Publishers Synopsis

From the Author:
"I am striving to give shape to my dreams--the old business of making myths--the fundemental force of art. And so, GRANDFATHER'S JOURNEY is essentially a dream book, for the life's journey is an endless dreaming of the places we have left behind and the places we have yet to reach."--Allen Say (Caldecott Medal Acceptance Speech )

Online Resources:
http://faculty.salisbury.edu/~elbond/grand.htm

Tea with Milk

Tea with Milk

Written and Illustrated by: Allen Say

Upper Elementary and Junior High Grades

"When her Japanese-born parents leave America for their homeland, an independent girl reluctantly follows and melds her experience and her heritage to find a new meaning for the word home."

School Library Journal Review


Online Resources:
http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/Graduate/TI/pages/thayer/lesson.htm

Marianthe's Story: Painted Words and Spoken Memories

Marianthe's Story: Painted Words and Spoken Memories

Written and Illustrated by: Aliki

Upper Elementary and Junior High Grades

"Returning to her own childhood for inspiration, Aliki has created an exceptional sixty-four-page book that presents Marianthe's story -- her present and her past. In Painted Words, Marianthe's paintings help her to become less of an outsider as she struggles to adjust to a new language and a new school. Under the guidance of her teacher, who understands that there is more than one way to tell a story, Mari makes pictures to illustrate the history of her family, and eventually begins to decipher the meaning of words. In Spoken Memories, a proud Mari is finally able to use her new words to narrate the sequence of paintings she created, and share with her classmates her memories of her homeland and the events that brought her family to their new country."

Publishers Description

Online Resources:
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/cross-cultural-communication/printable/64815.html

A Very Important Day

A Very Important Day

Upper Elementary and Junior High Grades

"Captures the excitement of immigrants who are becoming U.S. citizens. All across New York City, people are preparing for 'a very important day'...not the least bit daunted by a snowstorm....A tale told with vigor, exuberantly displayed in Stock's people-filled watercolor landscapes and cozy interior scenes of all the pre-oath preparations, this is a thoughtful celebration of one of this country's most meaningful ceremonies."

Kirkus Reviews

Online Resources:
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr082.shtml

A Picnic in October

A Picnic in October

Elementary Grades

Written and Illustrated by: Eve Bunting

"Tony doesn’t understand why his family always has a picnic in October on Liberty Island to celebrate Lady Liberty’s birthday until the day he helps out a woman who doesn’t speak English and he comes to understand what the statue means to his grandmother."

Publishers Description

Online Resources:
http://www.suffolk.lib.ny.us/youth/jcssimmigration.html