One Good Thing about America

Reviewed by: Phyllis Fuchs - Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: October 9, 2017

Review

The book is a must purchase for schools in Maine where immigrants and minority students face steady harassment and discrimination. Written by an author who lives in Maine working in Maine schools, the story is timely, sometimes funny and very real. Anais, who becomes Annie in America, is a nine year old African girl going to school in Maine for the first time. She has emigrated from the Congo with her mother and younger brother, leaving, among others, her beloved grandmother behind. She writes often to that grandmother about learning English, coping at school, and moving from motel to shelter to an apartment. Annie is asked by her grandmother to find one good thing about America everyday. Middle-grade students of nine through twelve will find the letters easy to read and often surprising. Small pen and ink sketches throughout the book's 152 pages display what is new and important to Annie such as pizza, ice-cream, the beach, the Goodwill store. Appended are four websites of information about immigration, a note from the author, and a list of words Annie is learning that sound one way but are spelled a different way. Excellent for both reading aloud as well as independently, the differences and similarities between cultures are presented in an easily understandable and entertaining style. Highly recommended.

Overall Book Score: excellent