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The book In English, of Course follows a young girl’s journey in adjusting to life in a new country as she balances her pride with her desire to connect and adapt to the new heritages that are present. Josephine, an immigrant from Italy, struggles to communicate and connect with her American peers.  Demonstrating how a child can find their voice in another language, and by extension, their agency, In English, of Course is as meaningful as it is thought-provoking.

In English, of Course depicts students from a wide array of backgrounds. These students share their heritage with each other and come together in their pursuit of learning English and maintaining their roots. Ling-Li, a student from China, talks about her culture while Juan, an immigrant from Puerto Rico describes his home country. Finally, its Josephine’s turn to share; she describes her old life and learns new English words simultaneously.  She describes a story about a cow, a river, and a pig and making new friends. When her teacher asks her, “Did you live in a farm?”, Josephine struggles to find the words to explain the magnificence of Naples and the prestige of her parents’ professional background.

In her struggle to communicate, Josephine learns patience and learns new words such as “falling down,” “dragging,” and “push.” By the end of the book, she can communicate more effectively, and she is inspired to learn more English words. In English, of Course portrays an immigrant’s journey from uncertainty to empowerment.

-Halla

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Want to read the analysis for In English, of Course? Click here to check it out.

Tags: Bronx, classmates, Josephine Nobisso, melting pot, pride, school

Mariposa Gown by Rigoberto Gonzales was a great insight into the new era of romantic, coming of age, novels. It was such an interesting twist to the classic teenage romance story that we’ve seen endless times. This novel discussed so many important topics in today’s society. It showcased a gay teenage boy dealing with the idea of leaving for college, as well as several other interesting issues. He is so relatable to many of us who are going through the same process of leaving home and everything we ever knew to seek something greater. He develops a romantic relationship with a boy that he meets the last summer after high school. It was a really heartwarming story of “the first love.” I really enjoyed the life lessons that the narrator continuously mentions throughout the book. It is such an interesting book written upon a brave, humble, charismatic, young man. The book also caught my attention through its captivating subplots. The main character’s best friend is a transgender woman and so we get to see and understand her story as well. There are also moments in which the book gets involved in the life of the main character and his family. This is when we see that there are deep rooted matters about the main character that we also need to be aware of. There is also a specific subplot that explores his sister, which was quite interesting and very enlightening to what the reality of our culture is.

-Carolina

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Want to see the analysis for Mariposa Gown? Click here to check it out.

Tags: coming of age, diversity, LGBTQ, mariposa gown, Rigoberto Gonzales

Where do you locate picture books that showcase interracial families? 

After being the recipient of a book baby shower (for which I am grateful for the outpouring of love and support), I realized that 97% of all the books focused on white families with white kids or books that had animals as the main character.  The majority of the books did not show interracial families, such as my very own.   

This led me to question and seek out my local bookstores in trying to identify picture books that showed interracial parents or interracial families.  The local bookstores did not seem to have many books that either had non-white main characters or interracial families, even when I stopped and asked for assistance.    

As a librarian, I began researching the various library catalogs, children literature databases, and websites for books, trying to identify books that I could bring home to my daughter, who is of Ethiopian descent.  The search results brought back a few hits, but not a lot with which I wanted to start to build my home library with. 

If I, as a librarian, were having trouble with my local bookstores in trying to locate books, and the library catalog was not descriptive enough to identify the race or ethnicity of the characters in the book, how could families, who did not have the library databases at their fingertips, find and build a collection of books that represented their family? 

This project was initially started with the idea of locating books that showed interracial families.  As other members began to be interested in the project, the topic expanded to include LGBTQ+ families, as a parent from the daycare in which my daughter attended, asked me about books that represented her family. 

As I looked around my world of friends, colleagues, and neighbors, I soon learned that families needed books as tools to help explain different family dynamics.  Be the change that you want to see.  As a librarian, I felt charged with creating a database that could benefit more than just my daughter and me.

-Kristine