- Age Range: 4 – 7 years
- Grade Level: Preschool – 3
- Lexile Measure: 450L
- Hardcover: 32 pages
- Publisher: Clarion Books; 1 edition (June 12, 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0618434771
- ISBN-13: 978-0618434770
EXCERPT from Googlebooks.com:
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.
Rationale for Inclusion: It’s integral to the incorporation of diversity and cultural understanding to have books in the children’s room that depict the stories of those children who may feel excluded, different, or feel left out of mainstream society. Especially for a child who is Muslim and wears the hijab, America can feel like a zone of hostility and confusion, an attitude of exclusion or ignorance toward immigrants, Muslims and those who seem “foreign.” A children’s picture book which conveys sympathy for the individual experiencing such a huge change of lifestyle, a child experiencing an immersion into the unknown, is a beautiful and important thing. Instead of experiencing the book through the eyes of the stereotypical American child who is welcoming an immigrant to the class, we get to experience a day in the life of a child who feels out of place, misses home, and wants desperately to find a connection from her old home to her new one.
One Green Apple read aloud:
Children's Materials: Large Group Bibliography 