Coming to America: A Muslim Family's Story (bk1) (45 pgs.)

Wolf, Bernard. Coming to America: a Muslim family's story. Lee and Low Books Inc. New York, 2003.

Summary:
Coming to America is a simple story about how one Muslim family came to live in America. This book takes you through a typical day with this family and also tells a little about it's Muslim tradition. The reader is taken on a journey through the lives of a family that spent four long years trying to get to America and the struggles that they face with finances, language, and homesickness now that they are here.

Author: Bernard Wolf
Illustrator: Bernard Wolf
Illustrations: Photographs of the family throughout their daily rituals.
Access Features: Afterword
Grade Level: 3-5
Awards: Notable Social Studies Trade Book 2004
Curriculum: Social Studies
Classroom Use: This book could be used as a resource for studying cultures and different customs of those cultures.
Credibility: There is no mention of the research Wolf did for this book but he does tell about the weeks he spent with the Muslim family in order to photograph them and tell the story of their lives and faith. He has also written 20 photo documentaries for children that emphasize issues in social studies.
Book Design: The book is a long rectangle with a picture of the family on the front of the book. The end pages are yellow (perhaps to resemble sunshine and hope) and the book is full of photographs. Sometimes the photographs take up a whole page and sometimes they take up two pages and there is very little writing. The photographs correpsond with what is written in the text. When Wolf starts a new section of his documentary it is set off by a larger, red capital letter in the first word of the first sentence.
Writing Style: Wolf uses very simple language to help make the book easier for younger audiences and also explains many of the terms he uses that may be confusing. He writes on a child's level in order to attract children to the book.
Standards: Social Studies-Standard 1: Culture; Standard 5: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
Related Texts: My Name is Yoon-Helen Recorvits; Goodbye 382 Shin Dang Dong-Frances Park; My Name is Bilal-Asma Mobbin-Uddin

Response:
This is a really easy read and would be a very fast book to read aloud. I enjoyed reading it because it was interesting to see the struggles that immigrants go through when they move to the United States. The family has a very strong bond and Wolf does a wonderful job of expressing just how close the family is. The book was a touching tribute to the families that come over and struggle to make ends meet but survive so hopefully their families will have better lives in the future. Wolf tells all about the hardships this family faces but also tells of the plan that the father has to give his family an easier life. He offers hope for many immigrant families by showing that they can survive if they have the drive and desire.