books about the immigrant experience
- 13 hours ago
- 4 min read
It's important for kids to understand the immigrant experience, especially now, with everything happening in America and around the world. It's easy to forget how much of this country's growth, its industry, its cities, rests on generations of immigrant labor, layered onto land that was already home to Native nations long before industrialization began. That story isn't separate from American history. It is American history.
These books are geared mostly toward grades 2 through 4, but honestly, picture books are wonderful for older kids too, don't let the format fool you. I'd also encourage you to read through each book yourself before sharing it with your kids, just so you're prepared for any questions that might come up along the way.
In this post, I'm sharing books broken into four parts, each one following a piece of the immigrant journey.
You can find all of these books together in one place on my Bookshop.org list just click through and they're all ready for you to browse or purchase, with each purchase supporting independent bookstores too.
The Why
Most people don't want to leave home. They don't want to leave their families, their language, the only life they've ever known. But sometimes war, hunger, or the simple lack of safety leaves no other choice.
Yasi and Mina's Pomegranate Tree is loosely based on the Iran-Iraq War. It follows a little girl who has to leave her best friend behind in war-torn Iraq for a safer home in another country. Fair warning: this one had me crying by the end, so read it on your own first, either to get those tears out privately, or to decide if you want your kids to see that raw emotion with you.
Wherever I Go tells the story of a little girl in East Africa (no specific country is named) who has lived in a refugee camp since she was a baby. Her family and friends are there, but her parents want a real, permanent home, one that isn't a tent, so she has to leave the only life she's ever known.
The Most Beautiful Thing by Kao Kalia Yang, illustrated by Khoa Lê, is a beautifully illustrated book that tells the story of a little girl's grandmother, who leaves her home in Southeast Asia because of famine.
The Journey
For many, getting to a new home isn't a flight or a drive. It's a journey that can take months, even years. Sometimes it's a small raft crossing a big sea, or sitting on top of a speeding train. It can be dangerous. Some children make it alone. There are so many of these stories, and the books here only give a glimpse of what that journey can be.
Gittel's Journey follows a young girl from Russia in the early 1900s who has to cross the ocean to America on a ship, entirely on her own.
Migrants is a wordless picture book that shows the immigrant journey through animals. It doesn't shy away from the danger, and even the death, that can happen along the way.
To the Other Side follows a little girl and her younger brother who have to make the journey alone. She doesn't want him to be scared, so she turns it into a game.
Starting Over
Arrival isn't the end of the hard part. New language, new customs, new food, and for a lot of kids, a new kind of self consciousness about the very things that make them who they are, down to their own names.
The Name Jar tells the story of a little girl from Korea who wants a new, American name, something a lot of immigrants have done, and still do, with their given names.
Watercress follows a little girl whose family is from China. She's embarrassed when her mom has her forage watercress on the side of the road, the same way the family did back in China during a great famine.
What They Bring
Right now, the media mostly shows us one side of immigration, as a drain, a burden, a problem. This last section is about the other side: the creativity, knowledge, and richness immigrants bring to every place they land.
The Wall: A Timeless Tale is one of my favorites. Simply illustrated, but it gets the point across: a king wants to build a wall to keep his kingdom to people like him, only to realize he needs the others back.
Sugar in Milk is a story within a story. The main thread follows a young girl from Iran who moves to New York to live with her aunt and uncle. She's lonely, until her aunt tells her a beautiful story about Persians who once had to find a new home in India. There's a line in that book that captures this whole section perfectly: the idea that, like sugar stirred into milk, newcomers don't take away from a place. They sweeten it.
This is only a very short list of books about immigrants, but these are my go-tos. Writing this post, I actually realized there's a gap I need to fill: a book about immigrant farmers, because if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have a lot of the food sitting on our grocery store shelves. If you know of any books like that, or others that belong on this list, please comment below so I can add them.
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