We have long
been admirers of award-winning author, Ms. Edwidge Danticat, who emigrated from
Haiti when she was twelve-years-old. On
the occasion of Women’s History Month (March) and International Women’s Day
(March 8) we bring you a new interview with the author, book reviews and lesson
plans that highlight Ms. Danticat’s life and literature.
Throughout
her prolific career, she has offered moving and engaging portrayals of the
immigrant experience often with highly memorably female characters. Ms. Danticat
published two books last year: Untwine, a young adult novel of identity, loss, and grief where
Haitian-American twin girls are irrevocably separated (in our
review, we suggest it’s fitting for readers of all ages) and a brave
children’s book, Mama’s Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and
Separation, where a young girl must learn new ways to communicate with
her mother while she is detained in an immigrant detention center. Please click
here
for a review by The New York Times.
Recently, we
interviewed Ms. Danticat and asked her to revisit one of our favorite novels, Behind the Mountains, published by
Scholastic in 2002. In Behind the Mountains,
Celiane Esperance, a young girl living in Haiti is forced to flee political
violence to the U.S. with her mother and brother and reunite with her father in
Brooklyn, NY. Along the journey, Celiane captures her thoughts and
feelings in a journal she affectionately names her “sweet little book.”
We asked Ms.
Danticat about her personal immigration story, changes she’s observed in
immigration since 2002, what Celiane might be doing now, and what advice she
has for young writers. The video
interview encourages youth voice in writing and underscores the challenges
facing immigrants today.
Please click here
to watch our interview.
This video
resource is replete with images of Haitian and Haitian-American art. It is a
terrific companion to our comprehensive
unit plan on Behind the Mountains designed
for high school students. The plan includes activities for students to: keep a
dialectical journal while reading, decipher the meaning of figurative language
in Haitian proverbs and art, apply the “push-pull” factors of immigration,
understand how a “duality of cultures” and “stages of adaptation” function in
the lives of immigrants, as well as write an argumentative essay.
Please click here
to read our Behind the Mountains Unit
Plan.
Ms. Danticat
also volunteers her time to judge our Celebrate America Fifth Grade Creative
Writing Contest where students write on the theme “Why I’m Glad America is a
Nation of Immigrants.” To learn more about the contest, please click here.
We seek to
connect teachers and students with the most relevant, fact-based information to
teach immigration critically and creatively–-at no cost. If you like our work, please share this email, tell a friend and
give them this link http://bit.ly/1KdE5Zz to receive updates and free resources
such as lesson plans, books reviews, and community grants. Follow us on twitter @ThnkImmigration #teachimmigration.
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