Where Are You From?

I was browsing Barnes & Noble with my kids recently and this little gem caught my eye. Where Are You From? by Yamile Said Mendez and illustrated by Jaime Kim. According to the biographies including on the dust jacket, Mendez was raised in Argentina and Kim was raised in South Korea. They both live in the United States currently.  

This book addresses the often asked question "where are you from?". In my experience, this question is often well-intentioned but offensive. Asking this question distances the question-asker from the question-answerer and implies that the answerer does not belong in this place or space. The little girl in the book feels this deeply as her answers do not satisfy others.

 

So, she turns to her Abuelo for help answering this question. He provides the narrative of their family and cultural history as he lists the people, places, and activities that define their shared experiences. The text and illustrations are simple and effective in focusing the reader on the essential meaning of each page. This book would be understood by the very young and provide a rich conversation for middle and high school students, especially if coupled with a discussion or writing activity based on George Ella Lyon's poem "Where I'm From". 

Where I'm From

I am from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.
I am from the dirt under the back porch.
(Black, glistening,
it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush
the Dutch elm
whose long-gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.

I'm from fudge and eyeglasses,
          from Imogene and Alafair.
I'm from the know-it-alls
          and the pass-it-ons,
from Perk up! and Pipe down!
I'm from He restoreth my soul
          with a cottonball lamb
          and ten verses I can say myself.

I'm from Artemus and Billie's Branch,
fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
          to the auger,
the eye my father shut to keep his sight.

Under my bed was a dress box
spilling old pictures,
a sift of lost faces
to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments--
snapped before I budded --
leaf-fall from the family tree.

Rather than being summed-up by a single story of where you were raised or what language or religion you are, this book and poem work together to provide a real response to the question of where you are from and who are your people. I think every person would like to be considered more deeply and broadly than just that one descriptor.