This Is Me: A Story of Who We Are and Where We Came From

by Jamie Lee Curtis, Laura Cornell (Illustrator)

Overview

From the #1 New York Times bestselling creative team of Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell comes a timely picture book about immigration. Raising important identity issues like “Where did we come from?” and “Who are we?” This Is Me is as delightful as it is important, sure to stimulate dinner table conversation.

In This Is Me a teacher tells her class about her great-grandmother’s dislocating journey from home to a new country with nothing but a small suitcase to bring along. And she asks: What would you pack? What are the things you love best? What says “This is me!” With its lively, rhyming language and endearing illustrations, it’s a book to read again and again, imagining the lives of the different characters, finding new details in the art, thinking about what it would be like to move someplace completely different. 
   
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761189664
Publisher:	Workman Kids
Publication date:	09/20/2016
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
Lexile:	AD640L (what's this?)
File size:	67 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jamie Lee Curtis is the author of bestselling children’s books, including Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born, It’s Hard to Be Five,I’m Gonna Like Me, and Today I Feel Silly: And Other Moods That Make My Day. She is also an actress known for her roles in Freaky Friday, True Lies, Trading Places, A Fish Called Wanda, and the television series Scream Queens. She and her husband, the actor Christopher Guest, live in Los Angeles with their two children.

Laura Cornell has illustrated all of Jamie Lee Curtis’s bestselling books. She lives in New York City.

 

Editorial Reviews

“A reminder that we all once came from somewhere else.” —TIME magazine

“An excellent conversation-starter that encourages interactivity and imagination.”—Elle.com

“[This Is Me] celebrates the diversity of America.” —Booklist

“Kids will find Curtis’ “to know yourself, you must know your roots” message resonant and will be scrambling to fill the pop-up suitcase at the back of the book with items that say to the world, “HI THERE, THIS IS ME!” An excellent springboard for school-age kids to discover who they are and where they come from. ” —Kirkus Reviews

“Jamie Lee Curtis has a knack for simplifying complex topics...and interpreting them in a way children can easily understand...Her latest title, This Is Me: A Story of Who We Are & Where We Came From (Workman Publishing) is about emigration, immigration, and the idea of leaving the old behind for the promise of the new. It’s a celebration of diversity and self, helping young children to begin the process of discovering what makes them unique and what connects all of us together.” —Story Monsters Ink

“To Curtis’ clever, thoughtful verses, Cornell makes sure every page is enhanced with entertainment and education both – from pop culture icons to the surly older teenage sibling to bookish devotions to cultural lessons and beyond. That the book then becomes an introspective, deeply contemplative interactive adventure by the final spread is a gift to every young (and not so youthful, ahem) reader indeed.” —The BookDragon(Smithsonianpa.org)

From the Publisher

2016-06-22
In their latest venture, Curtis and Cornell tackle the question of identity and deconstruct it to a level young people can understand.To prompt her students' journeys of self-discovery, the Asian-American teacher/narrator starts by telling the story of her great- grandmother who "came from a far, distant place. She came on a boat with just this small case" filled with the things she loved best. "What would YOU take?" the teacher asks her class. Curtis does a fine job spanning the broad spectrum of America's children today (as does Cornell in her playful, full-of-details signature style). "My baby-tooth tin," says a blonde, white girl with orthodontic headgear. "Abuelo's beret, my ukulele, my St. Christopher medal to look out for me," says a grinning Latino boy. Most choices are to be expected—a Barbie doll, Nintendo DS—but some are perplexingly from the wrong generation: how many kids will get "my Groucho Marx glasses / Weird Al-signed CD"? Overall, kids will find Curtis' "to know yourself, you must know your roots" message resonant and will be scrambling to fill the pop-up suitcase at the back of the book with items that say to the world, "HI THERE, THIS IS ME!" (The library edition omits the problematic-for-circulation final pop-up flourish.) An excellent springboard for school-age kids to discover who they are and where they come from. (Picture book. 5-9)

Kirkus Reviews