One Green Apple [Hardcover]

Eve Bunting (Author), Ted Lewin (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 2006 | Age Range: 4 - 8 years | Lexile Measure: 450L (What's this?)

Farah feels alone, even when surrounded by her classmates. She listens and nods but doesn’t speak. It’s hard being the new kid in school, especially when you’re from another country and don’t know the language. Then, on a field trip to an apple orchard, Farah discovers there are lots of things that sound the same as they did at home, from dogs crunching their food to the ripple of friendly laughter. As she helps the class make apple cider, Farah connects with the other students and begins to feel that she belongs.

Ted Lewin’s gorgeous sun-drenched paintings and Eve Bunting’s sensitive text immediately put the reader into another child’s shoes in this timely story of a young Muslim immigrant.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-4–As a Muslim girl rides in a hay wagon heading to an apple orchard on a class trip, the dupatta on her head setting her apart, she observes that while some of the children seem friendly, others are not. Her father has explained, …we are not always liked here. Our home country (never named in the story) and our new one have had difficulties. Later, when she puts a green apple into the cider press instead of a ripe red one as her classmates have done, they protest. But the cider from all their apples mixed together is delicious–a metaphor for the benefits of intermingling people who are different. Lewin's watercolors radiate sunlight and capture the gamut of emotions that Farah experiences on this challenging second day in her new school in the U.S. They show her downcast silence and sense of isolation because she can't speak the language, her shy smile when a classmate befriends her, and, finally, her triumphant smile as she speaks one of her first English words, App-ell. This story, along with Bernard Wolf's Coming to America: A Muslim Family's Story (Lee & Low, 2003), can heighten youngsters' awareness of what it must be like to feel different and alone and that each person has something unique to contribute to the good of all.–Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Gr. 1-3. This poignant, attractive offering fills a growing need for picture books about contemporary immigrants of Arab descent, without limiting its relevance to a single ethnic group. On her "second day in the new school in the new country," Farah, who cannot speak English, joins her class on a field trip to an apple orchard, where she enjoys the sunny day but feels desperately isolated, "tight inside [herself]." Though Farah wears a headscarf and knows that there are "difficulties" between her native and adoptive countries, specifics of religion and politics never distract from the child's experiences: the hay smelling of "dry sunshine," the spark of optimism kindled when classmates accept her help at the cider press. Young readers will respond as much to Bunting's fine first-person narrative as to Lewin's double-page, photorealistic watercolors, which, though occasionally stiff, plainly show the intelligence behind Farah's silent exterior. The old-fashioned assimilation metaphor Farah sees in the cider-making experience ("I will blend with the others the way my apple blended with the cider") needn't have been so overt, but with its large, read-aloud-friendly trim size and its age-appropriate premise, this book will work beautifully for teachers hoping to foster empathy for immigrant students, or for use in furthering character education aims. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 4 - 8 years
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Clarion Books; First Printing edition (June 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618434771
• ISBN-13: 978-0618434770
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37,448 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eve Bunting has written more than 200 books for children, many of which can be found in libraries around the world. Her other Clarion titles for very young readers include My Big Boy Bed, which was also illustrated by Maggie Smith, and Little Bear's Little Boat, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. She lives in Pasadena, California.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A perfect book for a time when newcomers are in every school January 9, 2007

By Julie Olsen Edwards

Format:Hardcover

Eve Bunting has done it again. This is a perfect book with a simple, exquisite story that does not preach or lecture, but reveals the heart of what it is like to be an immigrant child, with out English, on the first day of school in the U.S. That the protaganist is a Muslim child adds to its impact, and that it ends with warmth and hope is its power. Bravo!!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Immigrant empathy September 8, 2006

By M. J. Podzielinski

Format:Hardcover

Eve Bunting portrays a warm look at the plight of one immigrant girl transitioning to an American classroom for the very first time. I read this book with second graders yesterday (who have a brand new student from Norway in their midst) and I think all of them felt compassion for their friend's situation. The illustrations are amazing and Ted Lewin has used his wife Betsy to portray the role of the teacher. This is truly a book that should not be missed.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great multicultural literature for the classroom March 13, 2009

By Reader

Format:Hardcover

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any caretaker or teacher who wishes to introduce their young person to multicultural themes.

This book is especially worthy because of the Caldecott-winning illustrator. It authentically portrays what a Muslim's experience might be like as a newcomer to this country, which is not always too pretty. However, the book ends on a very positive note. "One Green Apple" is simply worth it.