Snow Day Friend: A Thousand White Butterflies by Jessica Betancourt-Perez and Karen Williams

OUTSIDE THE WINDOW THE U. S. IS COLD AND GRAY.

THE TREES WITHOUT LEAVES LOOK LONELY.  LIKE ME.

Isabella misses the trees, green with leaves and the warm air of Colombia, her Papa, and the friends she played with in the sun.

But today is the first day of school. She's already up and dressed in her new jeans and fluffy yellow sweater, with her schoolbag packed with brand new crayons she hopes to share with new friends. But her grandmother tells her to look out the window!

EVERYTHING IS SO WHITE!

IT LOOKS LIKE A THOUSAND WHITE BUTTERFLIES.

School is cancelled, and Isabella is sad. No new friends to share her crayons with today, she thinks.

"I HATE SNOW!"

But as she sits sadly by the window, she sees a girl outside, slipping and sliding, and suddenly falling down on her back in the snow. Isabella quickly puts on her puffy parka and stiff snow boots and hurries out to ask the girl if she is hurt.

"I MADE A SNOW ANGEL!" THE GIRL SMILED.

"MY NAME IS KATIE! SHE SAID. "LET'S MAKE A SNOWMAN!"

And there's no day like a snow day to make a new friend and learn to build a snowman, in Jessica Betancourt Perez's and Karen Williams' new A Thousand White Butterflies (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2021), and soon Isabella and Katie are making plans to walk to school tomorrow. The authors imbed Spanish into the text seamlessly, with meanings clear within the context, and also appends a glossary of Spanish words, while artist Gina Maldonado portrays the flow of emotions with empathy in her gently charming illustrations of friendship found. "An encouraging story of new beginnings," says Kirkus Reviews.

Nobody Knew My Name: Danbi Leads The School Parade by Anna Kim

On my first day of my new school in America, my heart beat "BOOM BOOM."

Mama held me and whispered, "Listen to your teacher and eat your lunch."

I said, "Don't worry, Mama, I will be good today!"

But beyond that red door, Danbi sees everyone in the class staring at her. The teacher smiles and shows her how to write her name, and Danbi does, but she doesn't understand what anyone is saying and she doesn't know how to play any of the games. Danbi tries, but it's embarrasing when her one block makes the whole tower fall. No one plays with her. Finally the teacher claps her hands and everyone pulls out lunch boxes.

"That I know how to do!" thought Danbi.

She opens her tall round lunch box, and there is a fancy feast--yams in honey, crystal dumplings, sweet and sour mini skewers, rainbow drops half-moon rice cakes. Amid their peanut butter and cheese sandwiches and juice boxes, they look exotic. The other kids are wowed! Danbi notices that the girl next to her is looking wishfully at her lunch box,

The girl next to her was looked hungrily at her lunch... so Danbi gave her a rainbow drop.

UH OH!

Ooops! The rainbow drop drops back into Danbi's lunch box. The girl doesn't know how to eat with chopsticks. Everyone laughs and Danbi gives her a lesson. Then Danbi has an idea: She taps on her lunch box with one chopstick.

TING!

The girl taps the other chopstick on her juice box.

TI-DING!

And Danbi and her new friend begin to march around the room drumming on their lunch boxes and soon the whole class joins them . They play together at recess, and afterward her new friend Nelly teaches her to write her name and then they write both names in English letters... on their cubbies, side by side:

SOFT AND ROUND WITH A DOT OVER ONE STRAIGHT LINE.

There are first days of school and then there are first days of school in a different country and in a new language, and Anna Kim makes use of her own experiences at school in America to give young readers an glimpse at how hard it is to be a stranger in a strange school, in her upbeat first day story, Danbi Leads the School Parade (Viking, 2020). Kim's story from the standpoint of being a really NEW kid at school is told with great understanding for all involved in Danbi's first day, and the author's artwork is charming and vivacious in the style of Hilary Knight's memorable illustrations for Kay Thompson's classic Eloise books. Kirkus Reviews gives this new one a rave starred review, saying, "Enchanting illustrations dazzle—particularly through the diverse characters’ hair and facial expressions that detail individuals’ unique traits while celebrating the entire cohort. Imaginative, irreverent, improvisational fun in kindergarten."

First Day: The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson

There will be a day when you walk into a room and no one there is quite like you.

Maybe it will be your skin, your clothes, or the curl of your hair.

The first day in a new class is hard. No one wants to be the odd one out, and when the teacher does the "what I did this summer" round robin. When Angelina listens to all the summer stories of flying  to other states and other continents, she feels like the only one who stayed home and looked after her little sister  and read lots of books. The teacher calls on a new boy to introduce himself.

"I'm Rigoberto from Venezuela," he says.

The class laughs, until the teacher repeats it softly and his name sounds almost like music.

And when Angelina says her long name, the kids stare at her until Rigoberto speaks right up.

"Your name is like my sister's. Her name is also Angelina."

And all at once in the room where on one else is quite like you, the world opens up a little wider to make some space for you.

And all at once Angelina feels comfortable telling how in her summer she read books to her little sister and to herself long after bedtime and realizes that like them, she, too, took flight to many places, and she begins to tell her class about what she read.

Feeling like the stranger in the room is an almost universal experience at some time in life. It may be a classroom, a college, an office, or a new town, but finding some connection with strangers makes it easier to see the things we may have in common. In her best-selling The Day You Begin (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2018) the Newbery Medalist and National Book Award winning Jacqueline Woodsen's first-day story, illustrated by award-winning artist Rafael Lopez, is a sort of parable for children in dealing with new situations, finding what you have in common and valuing what you may not share at first. This is a fine book for the first day of school; as Publisher's Weekly said, "Woodsen's gentle, lilting story and Lopez's artistry create a stirring portrait of the courage it takes to be yourself."

Jacqueline Woodson has won the American Library Association's John Newbery Award for Brown Girl Dreaming, After Tupac and D Foster (Newbery Honor Book), Feathers, and Show Way. (See reviews here)

KEEP OUT! Polar Bear Island by Lindsay Bonilla

WELCOME TO POLAR BEAR ISLAND

NO OTHERS ALLOWED.

Parker Polar Bear, mayor of Polar Bear Island, has a policy. His island is perfect. Their population is just right as it is. But unknown to Parker, his domain is about to have a visitor.

Kirby waddled where the wind blew, and today she was floating toward paradise.

Kirby is a young penguin with wanderlust, and the wind is blowing her floating ice floe toward the beach of a snow-covered island.

Parker stops her at the border.

"Didn't you read the sign? Get out!"

Kirby pleads her case. She's made a long voyage, and Parker relents, allowing her on night on shore.

But while Kirby is rummaging through her luggage, the other polar bears notice something intriguing--her flipper slippers, which double as flipper warmers, and when reversed, as snow shoes.

All the bears want some, too, and Parker soon sets up a veritable Flipper Slipper Factory, helping the bears make their own.

"They're toasty warm and tons of fun!"

Parker is not pleased. Bears are not supposed to wear slippers on their paws.

"Start packing, penguin."

But the citizens of Bear Island protest the deportation, pleading a need for more production of slippers.  Parker bows to the populace and grants Kirby resident status. He add a new phrase to his sign:

WELCOME TO POLAR BEAR ISLAND.
1 PENGUIN AND NO OTHERS ALLOWED.

But the happy hiatus doesn't last long. It seems Kirby has written to her relatives, touting the virtues of the island, and soon four members of her family show up on the beach, unpacking shovels and bed-sleds, creating snow cone flavors, and building snow slides right down to the sea.

Parker pitches a tantrum! He orders all the visitors off the island, but as he's ranting about the interlopers, he slips and falls on the ice. It's penguin paramedics to the rescue, and during his recuperation, Parker discovers the joys of bed-sleds, snow cones, and cozy flipper slippers for himself.

Parker has yet another change of policy:

You penguins weren't taking over our island! You're making it a better place!

Everyone agrees they're better together!

Sharp-eyed readers won't be surprised to spot a recuperated Parker painting a new welcome sign, in Lindsay Bonilla's Polar Bear Island(Sterling Children's Books, 2018) in this little parable of open-mindedness. Artist Cinta Villalobos' illustrations create comic images of a curmugeonly bear, perky inventive penguins, and a busy snow scene that add to the fun of this transformed island.

Here, Kitty, Kitty! Lost and Found Cat by Doug Kuntz and Amy Shrodes

A few days earlier, Sura's family had gotten ready to leave. Since they could only bring what they could carry, they had packed just one bag full of food and water.

But Sura had decided that they could not leave without their beloved cat, Kunkush.

Sura's family made their way from the besieged town of Mosul in war-torn Iraq to the Turkish coast. Inside his straw carrier, Kunkush was a cooperative cat, and they managed to make their way onto the boat without anyone noticing their stowaway pet.

Sura prayed that the cat hidden in a small carrier would stay quiet. If the smuggler discovered Kunkush, he would make them pay a great deal more money.

The big white cat kept quiet through the short voyage, and the family waded ashore, with Sura's big brother clutching the cat carrier tightly. But when he reached safety, he put the basket down and went back into the water to help the rest of the family to shore.

And the frightened Kunkush pushed his way out of the basket carrier and quickly disappeared into the forest, running like a deer.

Sura's family and the other travelers called and searched for Kunkush, but he was not found. Finally, they had no choice but to push on with their group on a walk that carried them through Greece and Macedonia, on to Germany, and at last to Norway, where they would make their new home. It seemed that Sura would never see her beloved cat again.

But that was not the end of the story for Kunkush. Some of the Greek volunteers spotted a bedraggled and hungry white cat among the strays begging fishermen for scraps at the dock, and one of them, Amy, took him in and started searching for the little girl who had lost her cat. She knew she couldn't trace Sura's family alone, but she knew something she could do.

Amy's friend in the United States made a Facebook page which made Kunkush, now called Diias, (modern Greek for Zeus) famous. An English couple agreed to keep the cat safe for a while, and at last Sura saw his picture on the news in Norway and instantly recognized her cat. And in a Skype call to Sura's family, their lost cat recognized his famiy and they recognized him, and at long last, the reunion of Sura and Kunkush was arranged.

But at the airport Amy and Kunkush were stopped at the gate. An official declared that Amy's carrier was too small for a cat of his size.

"Why, that cat can't even turn around," he declared, closing the gate.

Kunkush turned around immediately--180 degrees!

Against all odds, there was a happy reunion for Sura and Kunkush in Norway after all, in Doug Kuntz's and Amy Shrodes,' Lost and Found Cat: The True Story of Kunkush's Incredible Journey (Crown Books, 2017). Among all the sad accounts of refugees fleeing the Middle East for Europe, this true story gives young readers who can scarcely imagine such a thing an understanding of the hardships of a journey which for refugees means leaving behind everything they love, a home, family, friends, and pets. But in this sweet modern miracle story of human kindness and reunion with a beloved pet, beautifully illustrated by Sue Cornelison. young readers can take away a hopeful look at the current story of war refugees, in which much is left behind, but not all the important things are lost.

The Middle-School Immigrant Blues: It's Not So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas

Today's Sunday and we're moving again.

I am eleven years old and this is my fourth move. Every time we move it's to a new city or a new country. I was born in Abadan, Iran. Now we are moving to Newport Beach.

There are trees everywhere and the city looks like it has just come back from a visit to the beauty salon.

If our crazy nomadic life has taught us one thing, it's this: Don't buy stuff that breaks easily.

Zomorod Yousefzadeh has made up her mind she's not going to be one of those breakable things. This time she's going to be called "Cindy," a name from a popular sit-com, and fit in at sixth grade. She is delighted when their first visitor is a girl from their condo group whose name is also Cindy. Original Cindy likes horses, especially her own horse Mystic, and people who know all the words to songs by the Captain and Tenille. Our Cindy gives it the old school try for the first week, faking the lyrics to "Love Will Keep Us Together" and trying to come up with new things to ask about horses and totally trying to "work on a tan," a novel concept in Iran, with Original Cindy.

But the the hostage crisis intervenes in her campaign to find a best friend. Original Cindy drops her on the first day of school, and Cindy suffers alone through the first day jitters and the usual trials of being an immigrant as well as the new girl--camel jokes, trick or treaters who all seem to be wearing rubber Khoumeini masks, PE coaches who tell her to "just roll," and eating lunch alone. Not to mention spending her afternoons and weekends translating for her mother.

Then fate steps in--in the form of an adventurous girl named Carolyn, who thinks speaking Persian is cool and tanning is silly when you could be swimming. As the images from Iran on the nightly news grow more grim, life gets better for Cindy in her new place, where her friends make her feel that she is finding a real home. But as the 444 days of the hostage crisis grind on, things take a frightening turn. Cindy's petroleum engineer father is fired, and other American oil companies want nothing to do with an Iranian employee. Cindy offers to sell her canopy bed and gets a paper route to help out with the finances, but it looks as if the family may have to move, penniless, back to an Iran that is much different from the one they left four years earlier. Anf then, to make things worse...

A dead hamster is left on their doorstep, with a sign [IRANIANS GO HOME!]

But again, fate steps in, in the form of Carolyn's plan, in Firoozeh Dumas' It Ain't So Awful, Falafel (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016), and a bit of girl-sleuthing comes up with the source of the harassment, and Carolyn has just the plan to embarrass the perpetrator, Original Cindy's persnickety mom. But that's just phase one of the plan to keep Carolyn and Cindy best friends forever, in a surprise ending that middle readers will applaud.

Even to native-born 'tweeners, starting middle school can seem like being a stranger in a strange land, and Dumas amiably begins her story at the moment when Cindy faces that epic occasion as a real immigrant whose mother's knowledge of English extends only to "Tank You" and TV toothpaste slogans. Cindy suffers the usual teasing about camels and Khoumeini, but in her openness to new things finds herself a willing citizen in her new land. Dumas' style is light and humorous, yet insightful, with even the less likable characters handled sensitively with the gentle consciousness of a Beverly Cleary, with her Cindy showing touches of Ramona Quimby's approach to the world around her. And how American is that?

In a time in which immigrants and immigration are always in the news, this one is, in Cleary's own term, a "funny-sad" look at what being an immigrant looks like from the inside out. Says Time in their featured review, "Dumas has created an endearingly plucky charcter--any kid who's felt like an outsider could related to Cindy. Through it all the young girl keeps in mind advice from her father: 'Kindness is our religion, and if we treat everyone the way we would like to be treated, the world would be a better place.'"

Firoozeh Dumas is also the author of the notable memoir, Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of a Global Citizen