A Home on the Page

Gr 2-5–From the pair behind A Map Into the World comes the poignant story of a young Hmong girl and her journey to find out what “home” means to her. Nou opens the door to her house one morning to find “Asians go home!” scrawled on the family’s mailbox. Her father is able to paint over the hateful words but Nou knows they linger beneath the surface. Combined with microaggressions that she endures at school, Nou begins to question where she really belongs. The members of her family share how they see home. For her father it is in the songs of their culture; for her grandmother it is in her sewing of story quilts. Nou begins to write down her feelings and through this creative outlet she discovers that for her she can “build a home for myself on the page.” The story’s journey from an upsetting realistic beginning softens and the lines become more flowing and emotive in a warm palette as Nou discovers her sense of belonging through her writing.