A New York Times Book Review choice as one of the 10 Best Illustrated
Children's Books of 2011, an Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award Honour
Book, and finalist for the Governor General's Award: Children's
Illustration and Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Awards:
Picture Book
Each spring Anna leaves her home in Mexico and travels north with her
family where they will work on farms. Sometimes she feels like a bird,
flying north in the spring and south in the fall. Sometimes she feels
like a jack rabbit living in an abandoned burrow, as her family moves
into an empty house near the fields. But most of all she wonders what it
would be like to stay in one place.
The Low German-speaking Mennonites from Mexico are a unique group of
migrants who moved from Canada to Mexico in the 1920s and became an
important part of the farming community there. But it has become
increasingly difficult for them to earn a livelihood, and so they come
back to Canada each year as migrant workers in order to survive. And
while they currently have the right to work in Canada, that right may be
challenged. Working conditions are difficult for all migrant workers,
most of whom have to leave families far behind. And yet countries like
Canada and the United States benefit greatly from their labor.
Beautifully written by Maxine Trottier and imaginatively illustrated by
Isabelle Arsenault, this book describes what it is like to be a child in
a migrant family.
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language
Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.1
With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details
in a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.3
Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key
details.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.7
Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or
digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or
plot.
