Faraway Home

Faraway Home

From BooklistLike Allen Say's Grandfather's Journey (1993), this picture book captures the immigrant experience when generations live far apart and even happy family life is mixed with longing for "back home." Kurtz tells it from the point of view of Desta, a young African American girl whose father must return "home" to Ethiopia to visit his sick mother. Desta can't bear the parting, and as Daddy holds her close and tells her stories of his childhood, she comes to know how hard it is for him to be parted from the place and people he left behind. Occasionally, the writing is self-consciously poetic about "glimmering" sadness, but both the words and the pictures are wonderfully specific about the particular place Desta's father remembers. There are no generic images of "steamy Africa." Lewis' stunning, realistic watercolors move from loving close-ups of father and daughter inside their comfortable house to double-page spreads of the Ethiopian countryside, where the pink cloud of flamingos ripples up from the lake and the hyenas, "strange coughing cry" can be heard in the night. The pictures show Desta rooted in her local American school and neighborhood; it's also clear that her father's images enrich her life here, even as she longs for his return. Hazel RochmanAs her father prepares for a trip back to his childhood home in Ethiopia, Desta begins to worry. Where does her father truly belong--in the village of his youth or here in America with her? What was growing up in Ethiopia like? And will her father's love for his family be enough to bridge these two worlds and bring him back to her?