From Far Away (Classic Munsch)
PreSchool-Grade 1?A well-intentioned but ultimately unsuccessful book. Six-year-old Askar and her family left war-torn Beirut to join her father in Canada. The child's adjustment to North American life is summed up by her being frightened by a Halloween skeleton and peeing on her teacher's lap. While this probably is what a seven-year old girl would most remember looking back at her experience, it leaves readers hungry for more. There is such a quick resolution (all is well) that youngsters never have the chance to comprehend the trauma of living in a war zone or the alienation and fear the little girl must have felt in her new environment. The watercolor illustrations are full of well-groomed multicultural people and a teacher who looks like Princess Diana. An admirable effort by the child co-author, but a rather half-baked story from Munsch.?Christine A. Moesch, Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, NYCopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.