by Holly Johnson, The University of Cincinnati
”Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.”
–Jean Rhys
Books do make us immigrants! They take us to place in which we are unfamiliar, where we might be lost, but with a chance of being found and welcomed. This week, I wanted to share some picture books in which readers—regardless of age—can get lost, but from the journey we find a new understanding of the world, others, and ourselves. 
I have to start with Shaun Tan’s (2007) The Arrival, which allows us to experience the unfamiliar. A fascinating look at immigration, and the foreignness of a new place, with a sense of displacement, discomfort, and disorientation, this wordless book creates the opening for acceptance and understanding that is so needed to help a country flourish with new ways of thinking and being in the world.
Another great picture book about the foreignness of immigration is Shyam’s (2014) The London Jungle Book. This book also gives readers a sense of the unfamiliar as the narrator shows us London from his cultural lens. The illustrations are the author’s own, as that was his reason for traveling to London—to paint in the traditional style of his home village in India. Both The Arrival and The London Jungle Book would be for older readers. 
As would the marvelous codex, Migrant, The Journey of a Mexican Worker (Mateo, 2014). Used together or as part of a text set with narrative and informational texts on immigration, these three books are all wonderful ways to start talking about the concept of immigration, those who immigrate and why, and what reception they receive once they have arrived. 
This brings me to the book, The Rabbits, Tan’s (2010) book about colonization and often destruction of countries and cultures by dominant Western cultures. Addressing immigration within the scope of historical colonization places current concerns about immigration on its head, and paints an ironic picture of the political knee-jerk response to immigration that is in the media. Pairing the two works by Tan would make for stimulating dialogue with adolescents!
Younger children can be introduced to immigration in the picture books Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote: A Migrant’s Tale (Tonatieh, 2013) and Migrant (Trottier, 2011), two wonderful narratives that can speak to the experiences of young people who immigrate with or because of their parents. There is a slight difference in the concepts of migrants versus immigrants, but these books might help young readers understand those differences. 
In addition, both do have elements about crossing cultures, if not national borders. As does the Canadian picture book Arto’s Big Move (Arnaldo, 2014), which presents younger readers with a resisting protagonist who eventually begins to acclimate to his new world, just to be moved again!
Another wonderful book from Canada that addresses migration and perhaps immigration is The Lion and The Bird (Dubuc, 2014). The story of a wounded bird that is befriended by a lion, who takes care of it over the winter, is a lovely story of friendship, but also of how to take care of those who are displaced upon arrival at a new location, or those who—for whatever reason—cannot go home again.
Other books for younger readers would include many of the books by Patricia Polacco, who writes stories about cultural traditions and acclimation in the United States. Other books, such as My Name is Yoon (Recorvits, 2014) and My Name is Sangoel (Williams & Mohammed, 2009) 
are two other narratives about adjusting to a new place after immigrating.
The desire to immigrate to a new place is based on desire. Desire for a better place, a desire to live in peace, a desire for a better life, and sometimes a desire to be with family. One such book about wanting to be with family is Pancho Rabbit that I mentioned above. 
Another is Wall (Cole, 2014) that describes a young man’s desire and determination to cross the Berlin Wall to be with his father who is on the other side. There are strong reasons to immigrate. We come from stock that has done it in the past, and I imagine many of us, or our children, would be willing to do so in the future, if needed. Immigration is a human endeavor that we should understand. It is who we are, and these books will take us away from home, but more importantly, remind us that there are other places that can become home.
Journey through Worlds of Words during our open reading hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. To view our complete offerings of WOW Currents, please visit archival stream.
- Themes: Holly Johnson
- Descriptors: Books & Resources, WOW Currents