I, Too, Am Here
Author: Morgan Christie
Illustrator: Marley Berot
Published September 10th, 2024 by Second Story Press
Summary: The street a young girl lives on is made up of families from all over the world. Her family shares with her their stories of journey and struggle. Her own story begins here in this country, but she is sometimes made to feel she does not belong. She listens to her family’s voices. They tell her she will soar, they tell her she is beautiful. She listens and she says I, too, am here.
A multigenerational story of immigration, racism, and what it truly means to belong. Inspired by Langston Hughes’ poem, “I, Too.”
About the Author:
Morgan Christie is the author of four poetry chapbooks, a short story collection, and a collection of essays. She has won the Arc Poetry Poem of the Year Contest, the Prairie Fire Fiction Prize, the Digging Press Chapbook Series Prize, and the Howling Bird Press Nonfiction Book Award. ‘I, Too, Am Here’ is her second picture book and she continues to work towards affecting change through reading and writing. Morgan is based out of Toronto.
Marley Berot is an illustrator with over ten years of combined personal and professional experience. Her portfolio includes cover art for Neuron, graphic design work for the Toronto International Film Festival, logo design, and book illustration. She runs her own online store called MarleysApothecary.com. Marley is very passionate about her work as an artist, and this can be seen in every piece she creates. She lives in the Toronto area.
Review: The author shares that, “In reading this story, she hopes young readers will learn to see the ways our words and actions can affect others,” and I truly believe they will. I don’t know how anyone could argue that the beautiful family in the story should have anything but happiness. I also love that the author “drew inspiration from Hughes’s poem to write this book because she wanted to remind everyone who’s been told or made to feel otherwise how much joy and wonder they bring to the people and places around them,” and this is a message that all young people, all PEOPLE, should hear loud and clear, which this picture book delivers in words and art.
Tools for Navigation: This picture book can be read along side Langston Hughes’s “I, Too” poem to look for similarities, how it was influenced, the themes of both, etc.
Discussion Questions:
- Why does the narrator not understand the racism that his family faced?
- What character traits would you use to define each of the characters in the story?
- What should you do if you hear someone being racist (or prejudice in another way) towards a peer?
- How does the history of slavery and the Jim Crow south still affect America today?
- How was the book inspired by Langston Hughes?
Flagged Spreads:
Read This If You Love: Picture books about multigenerational families, anti-racism, immigration, Black history, poetry
Recommended For:
**Thank you to Nicole Banholzer PR for providing a copy for review!**
