Home can be many things to many different people. Is it somewhere with your family, cooking all your favorite food? Is it somewhere you've lived your whole life? How do you know where home is if you have to leave everything behind? The kids in these stories experience lots of different feelings about home, but they always find a place to call home.
Home, Home is a story about how home can be more than one place. Ajesh says that home is the place where he is more comfortable. Home is where his mother makes him a special drink called Chaiya. The comforts of his room is something he looks forward to at home. However, things change when has to go visit home, where Ajesh's family is originally from in Kerala, India. Ajesh he feels different even in the place his family calls home. He questions where and what home is. He discovers that home is where Chaiya and his family are when they are together.
Sometimes we must learn what a new home can be, but it takes time. Taking Flight shares that getting home can be a journey. It is a story about sometimes having to hug your family goodbye, leaving "Loud BOOMS of war", having your address be a refugee tent. Through graphite illustrations, the characters show the reader that you might not always understand why your home has to change.
In This Is Not My Home, our main character moves to Taiwan, her parent's first home. You might realize that sometimes you move and wonder about your old home and what makes it special to you. In a new home you may not have the same backyard barbecues, see your local insects or even use the same mode of transportation. You may move and say, "This is NOT my home!" Eventually, you will hopefully realize that this is your new home.
My Home Is in My Backpack: Finding home can be a long journey. A long journey to walk, to carry Coco the dog and carry belongings with them as they make the trek. This long journey makes our characters question what makes a home special to them, and along the way they draw their answers in their notebook. Mama says, "Everyone's home is different...if you look carefully, you can see them lighting up the darkness." What everyone loves about their home is also different. The long journey of finding what you love about home can be ongoing for families.
There are many kinds of homes. Maybe your Home is a Window or you feel at Home in a Lunchbox. Maybe you think "My Sister the Apple Tree" or your family is full of Dreamers. Where do you feel at home?
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