Workshop 1: November 10, 2010
Grades 11 and 12
Two literary criticism classes read Tell Us We’re Home, Marina Budhos’ second YA novel, as part of a Behind the Book program with the author. During Ms. Budhos’ visit, the class discussed some of the themes in the book, including being an outsider with inside information. They also talked about how the main characters had fathers missing from their lives - even if they were there physically, as one of the character’s dad was – and how this absence affected them.
During the visit, the students and Ms. Budhos asked each other many questions. The students were
eager to learn more about the book’s characters, and they discussed the ways in which they could
relate to the characters, all of whom are the children of immigrant women who work for the wealthier people in the neighborhood. One student volunteered that his mother works for a family in a wealthy Westchester neighborhood and described the ways in which he relates to their children. He, like the book’s characters, grew up without a father. Some of the students related to Jaya’s artistic dreams and the struggle of having a mother that wants her to be more practical. Others talked about the pressure put on girls and their moms and the hardship of having a parent that cannot speak English and has to rely on their kids’ to translate for them. The class also discussed how daughters take care of their mothers in many ways and bear a lot of responsibility at an early age. Others related to the character whose parents wanted her to stay close to their culture, not go away to college and stay home to take care of her younger siblings. The character and many immigrant students in the class felt that they were brought to the U.S. for a better life but that their parents sometimes complicate that. Many students spoke of having parents that are scared their children will become too Americanized if they let them go off to college.
Before Ms. Budhos’ visit, the students had been given a writing assignment to choose a character and give voice and expression to their inner hopes and dreams. During the visit, the students read their poems, showed their artwork, and made group tableaus which they explained to Ms. Budhos and the class.
