From Yard to Foreign

By Lyn Davis, Travis Turner, Leonardo Graham and Amanda Forbes

The story illuminates the social and emotional challenges faced by immigrant children as they attempt to find their voices and themselves as early adolescents in a new country. It provides a personal reflection and perspective on the challenges faced by many students whose parents migrate from the West Indies to, more often than not, a larger country, but whose final destination landed them in the United States in hopes of making a better life for themselves and their children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543425314

Lyn Davis

Ms. Davis is a Special Education teacher in Brooklyn, New York. Ms. Davis has worked diligently within the predominantly Caribbean community where she was raised, to become an agent for change. Ms Davis has taught and assisted families in the East Flatbush community for over 15 years. She constantly seeks out and utilizes resources to support and improve her teaching whilst increasing the learning potential of her students. By writing grants and seeking out educational opportunities and experiences for her student through her active participation in the Urban Advantage science program and the Donor's Choose program just to name a few. Ms. Davis graduated with honors from Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY with a B.A. and M.A. in English and a duel M.S. in Educational Leadership. She has also successfully completed a dual Masters in Special and General Education at The Bank Street College of Education, New York, New York.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Lyn Davis.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2017908249

ISBN:      Hardcover            978-1-5434-2533-8

                Softcover              978-1-5434-2532-1

                eBook                   978-1-5434-2531-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 07/18/2017

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For my children, Nadine, Samantha, Amanda and Sarah…and my loves Kenny and Matthew.

Dedicated to my other children, my students, who I’ve taught and been inspired by in my classroom each year. This is for all those who’ve come to America with their families and struggled to find their place in a new country.

And of course this book is for all the friends who’ve become family through their encouragement and belief in me.

Thank You All

Contents

1   Why Can’t Things Just Stay the Same?

2   Who’s the Visitor?

3   From Yard to Foreign?

4   When are we Going Back Home?

5   What’s the Subway?

6   Is this the Beach?

7   Do I Have to Go to a New School?

8   Will I Ever Fit In?

9   When Does the School Day End?

10   What’s So Wrong with My Voice?

11   If You Were Not Born Here, Raise Your Hand?

12   An Apology?

From Yard to Foreign: An Original Contemporary Caribbean Immigrant Hi-Lo Chapter Book for adolescents.

The story illuminates the social-emotional challenges faced by immigrant children, as they attempt to find their voices and themselves as early adolescents in a new country. It provides a personal reflection and perspective on the challenges faced by many students whose parents migrate from the West Indies, to more often than not, a larger country, but whose final destination landed them in the United States in hopes of making a better life for themselves and their children.

The main character, Kenny is a student trying to assimilate into a new country while being pulled by experiences of home or yard while on a quest of figuring out who he really is. Of course children will change as a result of their new environments, however these children must be able to mesh both old and new environments to gain a firm foothold in their future. From Yard to Foreign is intended to appeal to the contemporary immigrant child of middle school age.

It is the hope of the author to provide a literary resource where immigrant children, especially those of Caribbean descent, who have come to this country for the first time, can find solace in print form that will assist them in their difficult transitions.

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