Immigration

From Kosovo to the United States

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The firsthand account of Isau Ajeti.

The Unforgotten Coat

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Copies: 7

When two Mongolian brothers inexplicably appear one morning in her sixth grade class, Julie, who lives in a town near Liverpool named Bootle, becomes their new friend and "Good Guide," navigating them through soccer, school uniforms, and British slang.

Author:

Frank Cottrell Boyce

Lexile:

710L

Inside Out and Back Again

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Vietnam-born author Thanhha Lai bursts onto the literary scene with Inside Out & Back Again - her National Book Award-winning debut. Written in rich, free-verse poems, this moving tale follows a young Vietnamese girl as she leaves her war-torn homeland for America in 1975.

Author:

Thanhha Lai

Grade Level:

Middle

Lexile:

800L

Length:

02:30

A Lion to Guard Us

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Copies: 31

Amanda Freebold doesn't know what to do. Her father left three years ago for the new colony of Jamestown, in America, thousands of miles away. All Amanda has to remember him by is a little brass lion's head he gave his family to guard them while he is gone. Now her mother has just died, leaving Amanda to take care of her younger brother and sister.

Author:

Clyde Robert Bulla

Lexile:

360L

Letters from Rifka (Unabridged)

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Rifka knows nothing about America when she flees from Russia with her family in 1919. But she dreams that in the new country she will at last be safe from the Russian soldiers and their harsh treatment of the Jews. Throughout her journey, Rifka carries with her a cherished volume of poetry by Alexander Pushkin.

Author:

Karen Hesse

Grade Level:

Elementary

Middle

Lexile:

660L

Length:

03:02

Rodzina (Unabridged)

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In 1881, 12-year-old Rodzina Clara Jadwiga Anastazya Brodski wishes she didn't have to board the orphan train in Chicago. But she has no home, no family, and no choice. Rodzina doesn't believe the orphans are on their way out West to be adopted by good families. She's sure they will become slaves to strangers. Anyway, who would ever adopt a large, tough, stubborn girl of Polish origin?

Author:

Karen Cushman

Grade Level:

Middle

Lexile:

740L

Length:

04:48

Immigrant Kids (Unabridged)

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Many people came to America in the early 1900s looking for jobs, opportunity, and freedom, and a lot of them were kids. But what happened to all these immigrant children after they passed inspection at New York’s Ellis Island - that is, if they passed inspection? Life was not easy for immigrants. Large families lived in small, one-room tenement apartments with failing plumbing and few windows.

Author:

Russell Freedman

Grade Level:

Middle

Lexile:

1050L

Length:

00:40

Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna)

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Even across thousands of miles, the special bond between a mother and a son can never be broken. It gives hope to Carlitos, a scrappy nine-year-old boy whose mother, Rosario, has gone to America to build a better life for both of them. While Rosario struggles for a brighter future, fate forces Carlitos' hand and he embarks on an extraordinary journey to find her. Critics and audiences alike have praised this inspirational and heartwarming tale of a mother's devotion, a son's courage and a love that knows no borders.

Director:

Patricia Riggen

Grade Level:

Middle

High

Length:

01:50

The New Americans: Finding Community

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Finding Community is a 60-minute video module that highlights the complex emotions and sociopolitical forces propelling three families to leave their homelands in Mexico, Nigeria, and the Israeli-occupied West Bank and put down roots in rural and urban America.

Grade Level:

High

Length:

01:00

El Norte

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Brother and sister Enrique and Rosa flee persecution at home in Guatemala and journey north, through Mexico and on to the United States, with the dream of starting a new life. It's a story that happens every day, but until Gregory Nava's groundbreaking El Norte, the personal travails of immigrants crossing the border to America had never been shown in the movies with such urgent humanism.

Grade Level:

High

Length:

02:20

Immigration

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