Who Belongs Here? (Teachers Guide) - Softcover

MARGY BURNS KNIGHT received the National Education Association’s Author-Illustrator Human & Civil Rights Award for her work with Anne Sibley O’Brien and the Children’s Africana Book Award for Africa Is Not a Country. She is the author of Talking Walls, which has sold more than 200,000 copies. She writes a blog, “Discover Your World,” and is a Service Learning Coordinator, an English teacher, and a Peace Corps veteran.

Gr. 4-7. After escaping the killing fields of Cambodia and living in a refugee camp in Thailand, 10-year-old Nary (a composite character drawn from students that Knight has known as an ESL teacher) is now adjusting to his new home in the U.S. The amount of food in the grocery stores amazes him, and he likes eating pizza and ice cream. But sometimes his classmates are mean to him, calling him names and telling him to "get back on the boat and go home where you belong." In counterpoint to Nary's story, Knight includes information about other refugees and their contributions to the U.S. and challenges readers to confront difficult questions about immigration, racism, and multiculturalism: "What if everyone who now lives in the U.S., but whose ancestors came from another country, was forced to return to his or her homeland?" This book is similar to the author and illustrator's other collaborative effort, Talking Walls (1992), in that Knight's text compassionately explores the complex issues and O'Brien's full-color pastel illustrations personalize the experiences of Nary and other new Americans. An attractive and telling picture book that provokes a dynamic dialogue about one of the most fundamental questions before our country. Annie Ayers