Back Home: Story Time with My Father

K-Gr 2–In a powerful testimony about ancestral roots and family, the author uses her personal experience to express how shared stories between a father and daughter enrich their connection to each other and their cultural homeland. Lune is the daughter of two Haitian immigrants; her hardworking father establishes a routine of telling her tales. Despite her mother’s admonitions to go to bed, she stays up late for him to return home. Laughingly, her mother gives in to the inevitable tales that span medicine men, hurricanes, and foolish boys falling from mango trees. Digital illustrations are vivid, effectively bringing Haiti into Lune’s home as her father weaves his past into her present. In one scene, Lune imagines “me and Daddy going back home to climb magical mountains,” and she sees out her bedroom window the beauty of a Haitian night. Flowing white curtains seem to become the river waters from the previous story in an endless patterning of one’s past and present painted on a deep indigo sky. The incorporation of language, such as lakay, which means back home, heralds the start of a story and adds authenticity. A glossary and notes for educators and caregivers, as well as children, are included.