I’m Your Neighbor Books
Wherever I Go
Abia holds back feelings of disempowerment in an Ethiopian refugee camp by declaring herself the Queen of each day and task.
Six years ago, two Maine women sat down at a kitchen table to talk about how to fight the Muslim Ban. Order 13769 was not only a curb on immigration but an order framed by months of racist and false statements about immigrants.
Watercress
Never knowing what her parents endured during the famine in China, a First Generation girl finds her empathy in a family story.
Kate Cutko, a children’s librarian, and Kirsten Cappy, a children’s book advocate, thought they could fight back—with picture books. With Kirsten’s husband Mark Mattos joining them at the table to sketch plans for a portable book display, Cappy and Cutko designed the Welcoming Library.
Designed to move between locations, the Welcoming Library arrives in two red crates. In one crate is 30 acclaimed picture books featuring Immigrant and New Generation families and in the other is a set of oversized tinker toys that assemble into a bookshelf topped with a banner invitation to “Read to Welcome” and “Read to Belong.”
Story Boat
Forced to flee their country on foot, the big sister surrounds her brother with imaginative stories that give comfort at every step.
Could meeting a Somali Muslim family on the page, dispel false statements about East African Muslims? Research done by Dr. Krista Aronson at Bates College showed that reading picture books featuring cross-cultural interactions could build cross-cultural relationships.
“Fiction holds its own truths,” Kirsten Cappy said, “When we read outside of our culture, we gain not only new knowledge about that community but new feelings of connection to that community.”
Little House of Hope
After emigrating from Cuba, Esperanza’s family rents a little house. La casita has just enough room to create a home and a new start for others.
Other research shows immigrants and their new generations can develop a crucial sense of belonging when they see their cultural identity reflected and affirmed. The presence of diverse picture books, then, can also give crucial comfort to families upon arrival and in the generations to come.
Made in Maine, Welcoming Libraries now tour schools and libraries from 130+ regional hubs across the US. They have outlasted the Muslim Ban and are building the groundwork for immigration conversations built not on falsehoods, but on the stories of families.
Salma the Syrian Chef
While Salma finds her resilience in their new country, her mother is struggling. A dish from home may give Mama back her hope.
The Welcoming Library is the core project of the Portland nonprofit I’m Your Neighbor Books. Find a list of picture books that affirm the strength of immigrant women and girls on their home page at ImYourNeighborBooks.org
