Picture Book Resources
The Farmer and the Clown by Marla Frazee
A little clown falls off a passing circus train and a lonely farmer takes care of the little one till his family comes back for him. It's a sweet wordless story about an old man who lets his crustiness crack to a smile in the presence of a little lost boy. They are wonderful companions for a day. And the joy with which the family recovers the little guy is cheering too.
Activity Tie-ins:
- Inconvenience & Compassion: The farmer could have reacted very differently to having his routine interrupted. Have students brainstorm various ways the farmer could have reacted, and then what the farmer got out of being nice to the little clown.
- Refugees: You can easily tie that last Inconvenience & Compassion discussions into a lesson/discussion about refugees and their host families too. How do they think the little clown felt about being separated from his home and family? How do they think refugees feel about having to leave their home and sometimes friends and family? What were the pros and cons the farmer faced when helping the little clown? What are the pros and cons of helping refugees?
- What To Do if Lost: This book provides a good opportunity to talk to kids about what they should do if they are ever lost.
- Writing (any Language): Since the book is wordless, it easily lends itself to a writing activity. Have students practice writing dialogue and imagine what the farmer and the little clown said to each other.
How I Learned Geography by Uri Shulevitz
The author tells about how his family were poor refugees when he was young, and how his father brought home a map instead of bread one day. At first he was mad because he was hungry, but soon Uri became enthralled in the map and the different places helped him forget his grumbling tummy and inspired his imagination and creativity.
Shulevitz has an incredible story, which he further fleshes out in a note at the back of the book. The illustrations change to match the mood of the different parts of the story. When he is hungry, the colors are bleak and the details are minimal. When he gets caught up in the map and the countries it depicts, the colors flare and things are drawn somewhat fancifully.
Activity Tie-ins:
- Geography: Maps helped inspire Uri and distract him from his troubles. This is a good book to use when talking about the benefits of studying geography and maps; Uri's story demonstrates they can go beyond the typical directional usage.
- Poland: If you are studying Poland, this would be a short book to read and introduce a famous Polish person the students may actually have heard of.
- Autobiographies: A nice short book to use when talking about autobiographies or to demonstrate different forms autobiographies can take.
- Caldecott Award: This book won a Caldecott Honor in 2009. If you're talking about art awards or literary awards, you can include this book and/or artist.
- Mood & Art: Shulevitz directly correlates the illustrations and his mood in the story. Students can talk about why he chose the different color schemes and how they can convey emotion in their artwork.
- Refugees: Uri's book highlights some of the very real hardships that refugees face because of their displacement and reasons they have to run away from their homeland. WWII is over, but what wars/conflicts are currently going on causing people to leave home? Uri's dad has trouble finding work, and the family has trouble getting enough food. Though this happened many years ago, how were their problems similar to problems faced by today's refugees? If you want to extend this, have student research ways that will help refugees and still respect them as people.
- WWII: There are lots of good books out there for WWII studies, and this is one of them.
- Life Experience & Future Work: Uri Shulevitz has several published picture books. After reading this book, challenge students to read more of his books and ask them how they think his life experiences have influenced his artwork (he actually answers some of this in the back of this book).
- Map Skills: Have students research where most refugees today are fleeing from and find those places on the map.
Novel in Verse Resource
The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney, ill. by Shane Evans
Amira's life is simple and happy, that is until the Janjaweed attack her family's village, killing her father and many others. Then Amira, her Muma, sister Leila and old friends Amwar and Gamal have to go to the refugee city at Kamal to find safety. Life there is hard and Amira's tongue refuses to work since the attack, but a gift of a red pencil and paper helps Amira's voice find wings and gives her hope for the future.
Pinkney tackles a very heavy current event for middle grade readers, but manages to pull it off. She conveys the horrors and struggles of refugees in Sudan, but in a way that will not traumatize children. The book is written in free verse poetry and saturated with illustrations that help make this book fly by.
Activity Tie-Ins:
- Africa: Modern Africa doesn't show up too often in fiction, but it does in this book. A good tie-in if your class is studying Africa.
- Darfur Genocide: This novel makes the news stories about Sudan and the Janjaweed attacks come alive, but does so tactfully. It would help students better understand what has been/is going on there, and is a bit more fun to read than a boring news article.
- Refugee Cities: Amira provides readers with a first person view of what it is like in a refugee city and what drives people there. Have students discuss if they would like to live in a refugee city, why or why not. If students feel motivated, research ways to meaningfully help those in refugee cities.
- Psychology & Refugees: Many refugees, like Amira, are dealing with past traumas. It's a good opportunity to discuss with Psychology classes how trauma can affect people. Amira deals with it by going mute. How can you best help people like her? You could challenge students to find a way to make people more aware of how best to help people with past trauma in their lives.
- Education: Amira longs to be able to go to school, but her mother's cultural opinion that school isn't for girls is holding her back. Many students complain about having to go to school. Have them imagine what they would feel like in Amira's culture and whether or not they really mean what they say about wishing not to go to school. You can also easily tie this in with Malala and her fight for education rights for girls in her similar culture.
Graphic Novel Resource
Nnewts: Escape from the Lizzarks by Doug TenNapel
Herk is a little Nnewt fry with even littler legs, but that doesn't stop him from going on a big adventure after his town is attacked by Lizzarks. Herk starts off his epic journey by following the wishes of his mother, escaping from town, meeting an ancient Nnewt who helps him find his legs, and eventually finding a new Nnewt town. But he's still being tracked and the Wizzark has his eyes on Herk. This is just book one in a series that is sure to be super popular.
Activity Tie-ins:
- Refugees: Nnewt's town is attacked simply because they are non-scaled. The Lizzarks are scaled (reptile-ish) and are bent on wiping out those who don't have scales (amphibian-ish). Ask students why we'd classify Nnewt as a refugee. Discuss what kinds of things can force people to become refugees. Compare and contrast Nnewts plight with modern real refugees.
- English classes: I've been looking around to see if TenNapel comments on his inspiration for this series. So far I haven't found anything. Some of the patterns of speech come off a bit Shakespearean, not that they are hard to understand, they just seem fancy and formal and Shakespeare-inspired. Also, Nnewt's journey starts to take on elements of other epic journeys in literature. It'd be fun to compare/contrast Nnewt and Odysseus or Pilgrim or others who have gone on epic journeys.
- Empathy: Have students discuss how Nnewt felt about leaving his home and family. Do they think real people feel the same or different when they are in a similar situation?
- Reptiles vs Amphibians: These two orders of Animalia are frequently confused. This book highlights one of the traits that distinguishes the two orders, the presence of scales on reptiles. It would make remembering the differences that much easier, because Nnewt definitely will stick in minds.
Nonfiction Resources
50 Children: One Ordinary American Couple's Extraordinary Rescue Mission into the Heart of Nazi Germany by Steven Pressman
Gil and Eleanor Kraus were two relatively normal upperclass Jews living comfortable lives in Pennsylvania in 1938. They could have easily have lived through WWII in comfort, but when they started hearing about the dangers faced by Jews in Europe these two decided to not just feel sorry for others they decided to do something. Gil was a lawyer in Philadelphia and member of a Jewish group called Brith Sholom. One of the other Brith Sholom members mentioned to him that the group had a camp facility with 25 rooms sitting empty that could easily be used to house Jewish refugees. This set Gil and Eleanor on a journey through several months of mountains of paperwork and a crash course in US Immigration policies, and eventually into the heart of Nazi occupied Europe itself. Thanks to key connections, they were able to understand the process better than numerous other groups at the time and find a way to legally bring in 50 Jewish children out of the dangers of Nazi Austria and Germany.
Activity Tie-ins:
- Government & Refugee Policies: Many of the Kraus' headaches were caused by government regulations and policies, have students research past and present refugee policies by a few countries. Get your government students to brainstorm some of the things governments have to consider when deciding how many refugees to allow.
- Past vs Present: They say the purpose of studying history is to learn from the past. Reading this, it is staggering how few children were saved during WWII by the United States versus how many died during the Holocaust. The 50 children saved by the Krauses was the largest group of refugees to come to the US during WWII. Today's refugee issues seem startlingly similar, have students compare and contrast WWII refugee issues with present ones and debate whether or not the US learned from the past or not.
- Sacrifice for Strangers: The Krauses went through a lot for these fifty strangers. Ask readers how much they'd be willing to go through to save the lives of fifty people they'd never met.
- WWII: This is a part of WWII history that often doesn't come up, and gives an interesting peek into the inner workings of the U.S. government at home during that time.
Where the Wind Leads by Vinh Chung with Tim Downs
The Chung family was an extremely successful business family in Southern Vietnam. But they were recent immigrants from China, and as such, they were double targets of the communists who took over after the Vietnam war. Firstly, the communists resented them because they had been quite wealthy before their arrival, and secondly, the communists were anti-Chinese. So Vinh Chung's parents decided it would be better to risk escaping Vietnam than staying. They gambled their lives and the lives of their 8 children by hopping into a boat and setting out into the turbulant and pirate-infested waters of Southeast Asia. If the typhoons didn't get the boat people, it was quite likely the pirates would, for refugees were found to be very easy prey. Thankfully for the Chungs, around that time World Vision founder Stan Mooneyham became burdened for the Vietnamese Boat People, and decided to see what World Vision could do to help. Thanks to several miraculous events and the work of World Vision, the Chungs made it to America. But even after landing on American soil they still had numerous cultural and emotional hurdles to overcome.
I think it's very healthy for the cozy citizens to read stories like the Chungs' here, and be reminded of their own blessings and that other human beings out there in the world could be going through some extremely harrowing circumstances, and may even take a huge pay cut in leaving. (The Chung family went from being millionaires in Vietnam to scraping by in America. Their father went from being a COO to working as a factory hand.) This book is quite the eye opener as to the perils many such people faced. It is also a very interesting look at the difference between immigrant children and refugee children in their ability to adjust to a new culture. And the stories of how God worked miracles just to help them survive their boat trip were inspiring. A great read if you want to get inside the mind of a refugee and better understand their experiences. Due to the nature of some of the things the refugees experienced, I'd only recommend this one to High School students or adults. I've highlighted this book before, so I'll keep the tie-ins brief.
Activity Tie-ins:
- Vietnam War: For those doing a unit on the Vietnam War, this provides an insider perspective of the conflict and what it was like to live there during that time period.
- Refugees: This book highlights some of the hidden issues refugees are facing. Have students research what happens to engineers, doctors, professors and successful business men when they are resettled. How many of them are able to practice the profession in which they were successful at home? Also, discuss some of the challenges that refugee children face in adapting to a new culture.
- Refugees in Boats: Those escaping Vietnam are not the only refugees who end up floating around in boats. The stats in this book are horrifying about the survival rates of those who look to escape certain death via boat. Where are people escaping by boat currently, and how many of them are typically surviving today? Again, students can debate whether coutnries have learned from the past or not.
- Autobiographies: If you're looking for good modern autobiographies, add this one to your list.
Escape from North Korea: the Untold Story of Asia's Underground Railroad by Melanie Kirkpatrick
This is an incredibly well-researched, well-written, informative look at the plight of modern North Korean citizens, and their current passageways to freedom. It is one of the most harrowing modern human rights issues of today, but since people aren't escaping North Korea in droves like other countries, it is hardly known. Kirkpatrick explores what is going on inside North Korea, what various refugees do to escape, and how different groups and individuals are working to get those refugees to freedom despite numerous difficulties.
Activity Tie-ins:
- Human Rights Issues: This is a quieter human rights issue, in that it doesn't often make the news. Have students research other human rights issues that numerous people are currently facing, but are not well known. They can also research who is helping and how they themselves can best help.
- International Relations: This book brings up several very interesting international relations issues. It's a good resource to get students interested in international relations and explore careers in this field.
- Refugees: This book has numerous interesting insights into the plights of refugees, it's too many to list here. There's lots of ways this could be used to spark debates, discussions, research, and service projects. Two issues that I had never thought of before were the plights of the children of North Korean refugee women and Chinese men, since they have no official nationality they can't easily be adopted and they are often abandoned. Also, many North Korean refugees are so accustomed to being told what to do they have to learn how to make decisions for themselves and how to have initiative, and they really find freedom overwhelming. It's a problem most Westerners can't even fathom.
Want more resource ideas? Panels just posted several recommendations in an article Empathy by Design: Understanding the Refugee Crisis through Comics.
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