One Green Apple
Grade 1-4–As a Muslim girl rides in a hay wagon heading to an apple orchard on a class trip, the dupatta on her head setting her apart, she observes that while some of the children seem friendly, others are not. Her father has explained, …we are not always liked here. Our home country (never named in the story) and our new one have had difficulties. Later, when she puts a green apple into the cider press instead of a ripe red one as her classmates have done, they protest. But the cider from all their apples mixed together is delicious–a metaphor for the benefits of intermingling people who are different. Lewin's watercolors radiate sunlight and capture the gamut of emotions that Farah experiences on this challenging second day in her new school in the U.S. They show her downcast silence and sense of isolation because she can't speak the language, her shy smile when a classmate befriends her, and, finally, her triumphant smile as she speaks one of her first English words, App-ell. This story, along with Bernard Wolf'sComing to America: A Muslim Family's Story(Lee & Low, 2003), can heighten youngsters' awareness of what it must be like to feel different and alone and that each person has something unique to contribute to the good of all.–Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CTCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.