Author’s Note
At times, we all feel different or overwhelmed by change, so Sadia’s story can touch all of us whether we have moved to another country or not. In 1998 I was lucky to meet a very special group of children who inspired this story. I was working as an artist-in-residence for the Rochester, Minnesota public school system teaching about children’s book illustration. My first day in the schools brought me a great surprise--I was informed by the principal of Hoover Elementary School that one group of children participating in the program did not speak English. These children had immigrated with their families from many parts of the world and were a part of the English-as-a-second-language (ESL) program.
My week-long project with these children taught me that they had plenty of their own stories to illustrate and we communicated with one another through our art. I was so inspired by what I saw and learned that I decided to arrange a special project with the ESL students enrolled in the Rochester Elementary Schools.