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Valley Reads 2010: Welcome Home

CELEBRATING OPEN BOOKS & OPEN MINDS 2010 Discussion Guide WELCOME HOME Discussion questions on combined themes found in the 2010 book selections.   All Valley Reads selections are 15% off at The Valley Bookseller

calendar of events discussion guide for educators program locations   Valley Reads home

1.  The Emigrant Experience.  The theme for Valley Reads 2010 is “Welcome Home.”  In each book, The Latehomecomer, Weeping Under This Same Moon, and Grandfather’s Journey, characters leave a home, a country, a language, and a culture to find a new “Welcome Home” in America.  What sorts of circumstances have motivated people throughout history to emigrate.  What has motivated the characters in these books?  What might be some particular difficulties of emigration faced by the elderly, the middle-aged, young adults, or children?
2. The Immigrant Experience.    In each of the books, characters arrive in the US as new immigrants, but each in different settings.  In The Latehomecomer, the family arrives at the McDonough housing project in St. Paul from the Ban Vanai Refugee Camp in Thailand.  In Weeping Under This Same Moon, only the oldest teenage daughter of a large family, along with a younger brother and sister, end up in New York City after they are sent off by the parents on a precarious boat journey to a Malaysian refugee camp.  In Grandfather’s Journey, Grandfather arrives on the West Coast, in San Francisco, from Japan.  How might the immigrant experience differ according to where in the US (e.g. New York, Minnesota, California) the immigrants land.  Discuss the various support systems already in place (or not) for these immigrants when they arrive. What about arriving with refugee status or in some other capacity?
3. The Immigrant Experience. What differences might be found in the “Welcome Home” to a new country, language, and culture for Asian immigrants such as in these books as opposed to European immigrants?  African immigrants?
4. Impact of War.  War and/or peripheral violence figure strongly in these books in the unsettling of nations and peoples.  What are some various ways refugees are created by war?  In what ways has the USA been affected  by refugees from war? WWII? Vietnam?  In what ways have some refugees been affected by US involvement in war in their countries?  WWI? WWII? Korea? Vietnam?
5. Welcome Home (Place).  How does the place you live contribute to making you who you are?  Consider such attributes as language (including language acquisition), culture, occupation, rural vs. urban environment.  Consider also the age you are when you begin living in a new “home“ place.  What are some advantages/disadvantages of a people staying in one place for generations. Think about the different experiences of Dawb and Kalia, her parents, and her grandmother in SE Asia and then in Minnesota in The Latehomecomer.  Grandfather’s experience as a young and then older man in Grandfather’s Journey?  Mei’s experience versus that of her younger siblings and older parents in Weeping Under This Same Moon?
6. Welcome Home (Beliefs). The “Mother of Exiles” on Liberty Island in New York harbor says, “I lift my lamp beside the golden door” as a welcome home to all immigrants.  Ours is a society that separates religion from government, aims for acceptance and inclusion of all.  How is American culture enriched by the influence of the belief systems of the people in these stories?  Consider such beliefs as that babies’ spirits live in the clouds observing earthly life until they’re ready to be born.  Is this Hmong belief similar to any other that you know?  How about the custom of long and elaborate funerals to help the deceased on the journey to an afterlife home?  The importance of maintaining a strong spiritual link with ancestors? Other customs or beliefs? What are some difficulties faced by characters in these stories as they try to achieve acceptance and support for their belief systems?

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2010 Selections:

The Latehomecomer

Weeping Under This Same Moon

Grandfather's Journey

Partners: ArtReach Alliance, Back to Books, Bayport Public Library, Boutwells Landing, Hudson Area Joint Library, Hudson School District, The Phipps Center for the Arts, River Falls Public Library, Stillwater Area Public Schools Community Education, Stillwater Public Library, and The Valley Bookseller

2010 Sponsors:Hugh J. Andersen Foundation, Hudson Rotary, Windows of Stillwater program of ArtReach, Minnesota Council of Teachers of English, MinuteMan Press (Hudson), Back to Books, The Foundation for Bayport Public Library, Friends @ Stillwater Public Library and Sylvan Learning Center Hudson.