Someone New

O’Brien, Anne Sibley. Someone New.  Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc., 2018.

Summary from the Author’s Web Site:

In this companion story to I’m New Here, three elementary schoolers — who aren’t new — begin to understand and embrace three immigrant students.

Are you new here? Do you know someone new? In I’m New Here and Someone New, young readers explore the immigrant experience through both “windows” and “mirrors.”

In I’m New Here, readers meet three recent immigrants trying to adjust to a new country and school. In Someone New, the same story is told from the perspective of the students who welcome the newcomers. An honest and heartwarming look at diversity, inclusion, and friendship.

My Review

No matter your location, schools get new students all the time. Sometimes they look and talk like students already in your classrooms and sometimes they come from a different country and don’t look the same, don’t speak the same language, and don’t have the same experiences as those already there. Anne Sibley O’Brien has written a short picture book to  help students learn to accept newcomers. Here illustrations, done in watercolor, complement the text and incorporate dialog to help draw the reader/listener in to the story.

If you have new students in your school or classroom, you may want to consider this picture book as a read aloud to encourage the “old” students to find ways to welcome the “new” ones.

There would be no problem with adding Someone New to my K-12 Christian School library.

I received a copy of Someone New because I am a member of the Land Of Enchantment Committee. This is my honest review.

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