Sometimes she feels like a bird, flying north in the spring and south in the fall. Often children's literature introduces me to subjects that I would have never been aware of.and I am greatful.A New York Times Book Review choice as one of the 10 Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2011, an Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award Honour Book, and finalist for the Governor General's Award: Children's Illustration and Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Awards: Picture BookĮach spring Anna leaves her home in Mexico and travels north with her family where they will work on farms. I knew nothing of such Menonite migrants and now want to find more literature on the subject. Meanwhile, Canadian farmers needed field workers, and so children like Anna began to make the long journey North with their families. There they hoped to farm, withdraw from the modern world and find religious freedom. But one special group of migrants-Mennonites from Mexico-kept their Canadian citizenship when they moved to Mexico in the 1920's. They come to Canada and the United States without their families to work, and then must return to their home country. 'Some.visitors are seasonal laborers, or migrants. The Author's note gives a little bit more background on Anna's family. In the text, though, you can hear a little girl's yearning of wanting to stay somewhere on a more permanent basis. You can see how close she is to her migrant family and the love in the illustrations. The illustrations are sweet and harmonious. Inside the grocery store, she hears many languages and recognizes those who speak German. Sometimes Anna feels like people stare at her and her family when they shop at the cheap stores. Although she does help pick tomatoes now and then when no one is looking. Other times she feels like a bee, but not a worker bee since Anna is too young. Those rabbits live in abandoned burrows, her father has told her' (Trottier, 2011).

The ever-migrating family leaves little Anna sometimes feeling like a rabbit, 'but not a jack rabbit. Her family is a flock of geese beating its way there and back again' (Trottier, 2011). It is the birds, after all, that fly north in the spring and south every fall, chasing the sun, following the warmth. The story begins: 'There are TIMES when Anna feels like a bird. and Canada and back to Mexico to harvest the many crops.

'Migrant' is about a Mennonite Canadian/Mexican family who travels throughout the U.S. Books like 'Migrant' help to steer the reader to the other possibilities. I feel that adults and eventually children can too easily have overly simplistic pre-conceived notions about the world.

I purchased 'Migrant' by Maxine Trottier from the Junior Library Guild.

Migrant by Maxine Trottier