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Piece By Piece Edited By Teresa Toten "...an important collection of stories" - CBC Radio One • Nominee, 2011 CYBIL Award This new anthology features stories by some of Canada’s finest authors who were born in another country and who went through the experience of trying to “fit in.” Exploring the time and incidents, dating from the shock of first impressions to the author’s first stirrings of “becoming Canadian” and what that meant to them, the young adult audience is a perfectly tuned readership for this collection. Whether the teens were born in Canada or not, both the newly arrived and young adults share a powerful desire to fit in, to be accepted.
Featured writers... Teresa Toten, "My Piece"
Reviews... "There is variety, not only in format, but in content... Central to all of the accounts are the lengths one needs to go to in order to belong--and the limits one must set. Although aimed at a young adult audience, this strong collection could be equally well shared with adults. These honest accounts will inspire empathy in those who have not had to make the painful adjustments to a new country. They can inspire other immigrants to share their stories. This would be an excellent classroom resource." "In this country of immigrants, we celebrate and denigrate our heritage, all the while trying to belong to mainstream groups. Piece by Piece is about trying to belong while keeping part of what makes us unique. There are fifteen stories in this selection, in which all authors answered the hateful question, "Where are you from?"" (read complete review here) "This is a stimulating, thoughfully compiled collection that should encourage young readers to see their country, their classmates, and possibly, themselves in an entirely new light" "The anthology’s strength lies in its particulars — its stories of torture in Iran, bombs in Beirut, Anne of Green Gables in Mumbai, romance in the Dept. of English at the University of Toronto — as well as in its revelations about a common experience of strangeness that spans not just countries of origin and arrival but being a thinking person at all." "Toten has assembled fifteen honest, unpretentious, and immediately compelling stories by Canadian authors and artists. The result is a book for anyone who has felt the sting of exclusion and struggled to belong. ...The authors’ candid experiences and the universal truths they reveal make these stories a pleasure to read" ****/4, Highly Recommended "immigrant or not, [readers] will be able to empathise with the feeling of intentional/unintentional exclusion related by the authors." "Exoticism, like accents and ethnicity, is something we often think only other people or places have—especially if we are white and North American. But in fact, everyone has an accent and an ethnicity—and every place can be exotic if seen from the outside, as evidenced from the stories in Piece by Piece. At the same time, a book like this is also a reminder that anyone can be an outsider, and most if not all of us have felt like outsiders at some point in our lives." |
Discussion Guide Teachers & librarians - download a discussion guide to accompany Piece By Piece, designed for grades 7 - 11.
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