Empathy for Refugees Through Story…and Hypnosis
Studies have shown that reading fiction creates empathy. That is the whole basis of I’m Your Neighbor – creating empathy for the immigration experience through stories. Amnesty International took one refugee’s story and shared it directly with the subconscious of handful of long-term citizens. The results are shocking and breathtaking. Brace yourself.
Read MoreWhat It’s Like to Be a Refugee
Children’s book author Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich shares “Books to Help Kids Understand What It’s Like to Be a Refugee” in an article for Brightly. What favorite book for building understanding?
Read MoreEmpathy for the Struggles of Childhood Immigration
Author and illustrator Eugene Yelchin writing for The New York Times Book Review profiled the I’m Your Neighbor featured picture books My Two Blankets, Mama’s Nightingale, I’m New Here, and Seeds of Friendship. Read the article. “These books will inspire not just empathy for the struggles of childhood immigration, but admiration for their authors’ and illustrators’ ingenuity as well.” —Eugene Yelchin, The New York Times Book Review
Read MoreOne Answer is Through Literature
Monica Edinger, a fourth-grade teacher in New York City, the author of Africa Is My Home: A Child of the Amistad, and blogger at Educating Alice, reviewed three I’m Your Neighbor-themed books for the New York Times Book Review. In her opening and closing she spoke beautifully of the mission of these titles. “That the world can be a harsh place is unquestionable. For those of us who live in relative comfort, far from lands coping with brutal ethnic conflict and severe deprivation, the images of suffering are heart-wrenching, all the more when children are affected. With little or...
Read MoreRecommended Reading List from School Library Journal
School Library Journal recently published a selection of books featuring experiences of war, both from the perspective of home and abroad. The selection is categorized by age and has both fiction and non fiction titles. This list includes books already featured on I’m Your Neighbor, such as Mali Under the Night Sky, Escaping the Tiger, and A Game for Swallows in addition to titles not present in our database. It provides a great resource for those searching for more books featuring the experiences of children in the midst of war.
Read MoreTeaching Islam and the Middle East in the Classroom
While I’m Your Neighbor Books provides a recommended list of books to read about other cultures, we don’t always have then answers to how to use these titles. Some titles have educator’s guides and resources available with discussion topics, but others do not. The mission of this project is to encourage readers to explore cultures and backgrounds with which they may be unfamiliar but we realize that there are many issues and questions that may come up. How do you approach sensitive subjects like Islam and the Middle East when many Americans have strong feelings about these...
Read MoreBooklist Article on Books Portraying Today’s Immigration Exerience
By Delanie Honda (Intern to I’m Your Neighbor) We were fortunate to find an article by Booklist entitled “The New Immigration Story” that fits in perfectly with I’m Your Neighbor! While the article was published in 2005 and consequently does not contain recent titles, it has a comprehensive list of books for children, young adults, and adults that deal with the today’s immigration experience. Countries of origin included are Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, China, Sudan, Romania, Palestine, Venezuela and Latin America. From the titles I’ve read so far, this is...
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