Journeys ESL Literacy Bins

The DBTRC has five Journeys bins. Each bin has a selection of books from the list below.

ALIKI

PAINTED WORDS/ SPOKEN MEMORIES

Bin#1, Bin #3

Everyone has a Life Story. Sometimes it can only be told in pictures. Sometimes it can be told in words. And sometimes it can be told in words and pictures, as Aliki has done. In telling Marianthe's story, Aliki tells the Life Story of every child who has ever been uprooted, brought to a new country, and faced with a new school, new customs, and a new language.

BOGART, JO ELLEN

JEREMIAH LEARNS TO READ

Bin #1, Bin #3

Jeremiah can build a split-rail fence, cook buttermilk pancakes and grow juicy cobs of corn. But he doesn't know how to read.

"You can learn," says his wife.

So Jeremiah goes to school. And as he studies with the teacher and children, he shows them how to make applesauce and chirp like a chickadee. Soon Jeremiah is reading books, writing stories, and inspiring his wife to read, too.

KILBORNE, SARAH S.

LEAVING VIETNAM : THE TRUE STORY OF TUAN NGO

Bin #4

The journey of Tuan Ngo, a boat boy. He and his father endure danger and difficulties when they escape by boat from Vietnam, spend days at sea, and then months in refugee camps before making their way to the U.S.

KIUCHI, TATSURO

THE LOTUS SEED

Bin #5

A young girl saves a lotus seed and carries it with her everywhere to remember a brave emperor and the homeland that she has to flee.

MASON, PAUL

JOURNEYS

Bin #4

Explains the origin, historical or religious significance and practice of different types of journeys in various cultures around the world.

MUNSCH, ROBERT

FROM FAR AWAY

Bin #1, Bin #3

This story grew out of a series of letters that Saoussen (age seven) wrote to the author. She came to North America from Beirut when she was five years old. This is her story.

MUNSCH, ROBERT

THE PAPERBAG PRINCESS

Bin #4

A princess outsmarts a dragon to save her prince, only to find he does not show any gratitude, but instead complains of her appearance.

RINGGOLD, FAITH

IF A BUS COULD TALK : THE STORY OF ROSA PARKS

Bin#5

A biography of the African American woman and civil rights worker whose refusal to give up her seat on a bus led to a boycott which lasted more than a year in Montgomery, Alabama.

ROSEN, MICHAEL J.

WE'RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT

Bin #5

Chinese and English version of this classic story.

RUMFORD, JAMES

CALABASH CAT AND HIS AMAZING JOURNEY

Bin#5

English and Arabic. A calabash cat, living in Africa, sets off to see where the world ends.

SAY, ALLEN

GRANDFATHER'S JOURNEY

Bin #4

Through compelling reminiscences of his grandfather's life in America and Japan, Allen Say delivers a poignant account of his family's unique cross-cultural experience. He warmly conveys his own love for his two countries and describes the strong and constant desire to be in both places at once.

SHEA, PEGI DEITZ

THE WHISPERING CLOTH : A REFUGEE'S STORY

Bin #4

A young girl in a Thai refugee camp in the mid-1970's finds the story within herself to create her own pa'ndau.

SHIN, SUN YUNG

COOPER'S LESSON

Bin #5

English and Korean. When Cooper, a biracial Korean American boy, feels uncomfortable trying to speak Korean in Mr. Lee's grocery, his bad behaviour eventually leads to a change in his attitude.

SURAT, MICHELE MARIA

ANGEL CHILD, DRAGON CHILD

Bin #1, Bin #3

Ut has just come to the United States from Vietnam, and she does not like her new American school. The children all laugh when she speaks in Vietnamese. And there's that awful red-haired boy, named Raymond, who picks on her almost every day. Most of all, Ut misses her mother who had to stay behind in Vietnam. But to Ut's surprise, it is Raymond who thinks of the perfect way to help her.

YEE, PAUL

GHOST TRAIN

Bin #1. Bin #3,

Left behind in China by her father, who has gone to North America to find work, Choon-yi has made her living by selling her paintings in the market. When her father writes one day and asks her to join him, she joyously sets off, only to discover that he has been killed.

Choon-yi sees the railway and the giant train engines that her father died for, and she is filled with an urge to paint them. But her work disappoints her until a ghostly presence beckons her to board a train and go on a fantastical journey.