“Books became our language. Books became our home,” reads a line from the picture book “Dreamers,” by Yuyi Morales, the story of an immigrant family negotiating their new life in America.

This quote is pinned to the wall of the Portland nonprofit I’m Your Neighbor Books, where I recently packed a welcoming library for Saco schools. As reported by the Press Herald, Saco is welcoming 120 new students who came to Maine as asylum seekers.

I’m Your Neighbor Books, founded in Maine and working with schools nationwide, recognizes that the arrival of multilingual students is an opportunity for not just the new arrivals, but for the extended school community as well. The nonprofit helps long-term educators, students and their families build their cultural competency and welcoming skills while helping ensure that new arrival students develop a crucial sense of belonging.

Headed to Saco are 30 essential picture books representing African, Haitian and other immigrant and new-generation families. With each turn of the richly illustrated pages, Saco’s students will have the rare opportunity to see the Black immigrant experience depicted. Those depictions normalize and embrace the experience of a diverse classroom for all who read. As with many Maine communities before them, Saco will have the privilege to grow their new language of welcoming and belonging and to start a conversation about what home means for each of us.

Kirsten Cappy
Portland

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