Reviews of COME ON IN: 15 STORIES ABOUT IMMIGRATION AND FINDING HOME:
Booklist Starred Review
Kirkus Starred Review
The subtitle of this anthology provides an apt description of what to expect, but Come On In is
about much more. Composed of stories about immigration and finding home, this collection
showcases fresh perspectives of young writers from an array of backgrounds: Iranian,
Guatemalan, Kashmiri, Korean, and more. Suitable for middle- and high-school readers, the
writing styles range from understated to in-your-face, with the uniting element being the texts’
ability to wrap around the reader’s emotions and hold on. There is humor, tenderness, despair,
outrage, and tenacity. Some stories capture the complicated generational discrepancy between
immigrant parents and their second-generation children, while others focus on such issues as
ICE raids, intergenerational love, extended-family camping trips, profiling at airport-security
checkpoints, border crossings, and saying farewell—all under the shadow of the man in the
White House. In the face of his prohibitions, Alsaid’s collection seems to say, “Welcome, readers.
We have something to share with you: our stories, which are not so different from yours.” As a
whole, this is a poignant and powerful collection of universal themes embedded with cultural
specificity. The book is organized such that the stories are united by the theme of immigration,
but each one stands apart in voice, experience, and style.
COME ON IN: 15 STORIES ABOUT IMMIGRATION AND FINDING HOME
Publisher: Inkyard Press (October 13, 2020)
ISBN-10: 1335146490
ISBN-13: 978-1335146496
ASIN: B07ZVXPG72
Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches
Language: English
On Sale Date: Oct 13, 2020
Publication Month: Oct 2020
Format: eBook, Hardcover
For more reviews of Come On In:
Review Issue Date: August 15, 2020
Online Publish Date: August 4, 2020
Publisher:Inkyard Press
Pages: 256
Price ( Hardcover ): $18.99
Publication Date: October 13, 2020
ISBN ( Hardcover ): 978-1-335-14649-6
Section: Teen
Fifteen noted YA authors offer powerful slice-of-life reflections about immigration and its emotional complexities.
Alsaid edits an extraordinary anthology featuring exquisite writing and offering a genuinely diverse collection on the richly layered topic of immigration. International in scope, the cross-section of voices is refreshingly diverse while also unified by emotional vulnerability. Nafiza Azad sets the tone in the opening story, “All the Colors of Goodbye,” through the grieving voice of a 17-year-old Indian Fijian girl who has been told she must emigrate unexpectedly following a coup, though her older brother must stay because officials in their new country deem him too old to be a dependent. In Misa Sugiura’s story, “Where I’m From,” Eriko reveals in painful snapshots the omnipresent otherness she feels as the child of Japanese immigrants to America, both as a child and later a college freshman in the U.S.—and also when visiting Japan with her mother. The stories reveal how immigration policies not only affect families, but also friendships, as in Lilliam Rivera’s “Salvation and the Sea,” in which a Guatemalan/Puerto Rican best friend duo on a road trip in California undergo a polarizing experience at a random immigration checkpoint. In the closing story about Jewish émigrés to Argentina, Alsaid pays homage to the ancestors who paved the way for our very existence. The overall result is moving and deeply relevant to our contemporary world.
A must-have antidote to xenophobia and a much-needed, compassionate mirror for many. (Anthology. 13-18)
Reviews of Come On In.
Read more about the characters in THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY: Click here.
Read a synopsis and more about THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY: Click here.