Another Country

A little girl flies to another country with her parents, not on vacation but to live for two years. And there she finds a new—and strange—world. The houses and streets are not like the ones she’s used to, their new home is nothing like their old one. And it’s the same for the way to school, the parks and the customs. Also the children in her new class look different, and what is really scary is the language they speak—she doesn’t understand a thing! How can she make new friends if she can’t talk to them? What will happen if she gets lost and can’t explain who she is or where she lives?

Her feelings of loneliness and of being different are portrayed mainly through the language problem. But then she slowly begins to learn the new language and can even read the street signs. At first she is silent in class, because by the time she sorts out a response to the teacher’s question, someone else has already answered. But one day, she is in the park with her father and the feeling of different begins to fade: when the ice cream vendor asks her what flavor she wants, she says, “cio-co-la-te” and smiles, because her first word in the new language is a sweet word!

This lovely book reads like the author’s own story: as a child, she too traveled with her parents from Israel to South America.