The Newcomers: Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in America

The Newcomers: Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in America

From the award-winning author of Soldier Girls and Just Like Us, an â€œextraordinaryâ€ (The Denver Post) account of refugee teenagers at a Denver public high school and their compassionate teacher and â€œa reminder that in an era of nativism, some Americans are still breaking down walls and nurturing the seeds of the great American experimentâ€ (The New York Times Book Review).

The Newcomers follows the lives of twenty-two immigrant teenagers throughout the course of the 2015-2016 school year as they land at South High School in Denver, Colorado. These newcomers, from fourteen to nineteen years old, come from nations convulsed by drought or famine or war. Many come directly from refugee camps, after experiencing dire forms of cataclysm. Some arrive alone, having left or lost every other member of their original family.

At the center of their story is Mr. Williams, their dedicated and endlessly resourceful teacher of English Language Acquisition. If Mr. Williams does his job right, the newcomers will leave his class at the end of the school year with basic English skills and new confidence, their foundation for becoming Americans and finding a place in their new home. Ultimately, â€œThe Newcomers reads more like an anthropologistâ€™s notebook than a work of reportage: Helen Thorpe not only observes, she chips in her two cents and participates. Like her, weâ€™re moved and agitated by this story of refugee teenagersâ€¦Donald Trumpâ€™s gross slander of refugees and immigrants is countered on every page by the evidence of these studentsâ€™ lives and charactersâ€ (Los Angeles Review of Books).

With the US at a political crossroads around questions of immigration, multiculturalism, and Americaâ€™s role on the global stage, Thorpe presents a fresh and nuanced perspective. The Newcomers is â€œnot only an intimate look at lives immigrant teens live, but it is a primer on the art and science of new language acquisition and a portrait of ongoing and emerging global horrors and the human fallout that arrives on our shoresâ€ (USA TODAY).
Country USA
Manufacturer Scribner
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2017-11-14
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Scribner
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2017-11-14
Format	Kindle eBook

The Newcomers: Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in America

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