One Green Apple

One Green Apple

Farah feels alone, even when surrounded by her classmates. She listens and nods but doesn’t speak. It’s hard being the new kid in school, especially when you’re from another country and don’t know the language.

Then, on a field trip to an apple orchard, Farah discovers there are lots of things that sound the same as they did at home, from dogs crunching their food to the ripple of friendly laughter. As she helps the class make apple cider, Farah connects with the other students and begins to feel that she belongs.

Ted Lewin’s gorgeous sun-drenched paintings and Eve Bunting’s sensitive text immediately put the reader into another child’s shoes in this timely story of a young Muslim immigrant.

About the Author

Eve Bunting has written more than 200 books for children, many of which can be found in libraries around the world. Her other Clarion titles for very young readers include My Big Boy Bed, which was also illustrated by Maggie Smith, and Little Bear’s Little Boat, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. She lives in Pasadena, California. Read more about her here.

A Few Reviews

“As a Muslim girl rides in a hay wagon heading to an apple orchard on a class trip, the dupatta on her head setting her apart, she observes that while some of the children seem friendly, others are not. Her father has explained, …we are not always liked here. Our home country (never named in the story) and our new one have had difficulties. Later, when she puts a green apple into the cider press instead of a ripe red one as her classmates have done, they protest. But the cider from all their apples mixed together is delicious–a metaphor for the benefits of intermingling people who are different. Lewin’s watercolors radiate sunlight and capture the gamut of emotions that Farah experiences on this challenging second day in her new school in the U.S. They show her downcast silence and sense of isolation because she can’t speak the language, her shy smile when a classmate befriends her, and, finally, her triumphant smile as she speaks one of her first English words, App-ell. This story, along with Bernard Wolf’s Coming to America: A Muslim Family’s Story (Lee & Low, 2003), can heighten youngsters’ awareness of what it must be like to feel different and alone and that each person has something unique to contribute to the good of all.”  –Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT

“One of my favorite books to read aloud to 5th graders. My students love this story. It’s always a hit. One of my most reluctant readers of all time (and I’ve been a reading teacher for a long time) has hated every story we’ve read in class, including her own independent books. At the end of this read aloud, she turned to me, breathless, and said “that was BEAUTIFUL! how can a story be so good? how did you FIND it??” It was one of the most memorable moments of my career. She wanted a copy of her own so I bought her one. When I gave it to her, she hugged the book to her chest and started crying. To have a book touch a student so deeply was an incredible feeling.” —Amazon Reviewer Kitkat613

Find more Immigrant Books here!