A newcomer to the United States, Farah joins classmates on a field trip to an apple orchard. She doesn’t speak English. “It’s not that I am stupid,” she wishes she could tell the teacher, who is instructing Farah through gestures and simple words to pick just one apple. Farah’s choice—a small, hard, green apple—is very different from the bright round red ones the other kids picked, just as Farah, who is Muslim and wears a head scarf, looks different from her classmates. But when they put their apples into a press, the cider comes out tasting sweet—as sweet as the first gestures of friendship Farah shares with one or two students in the class by the day’s end, and as sweet as the sound of her first English word: “app-ell.” “Soon I will know their words. I will blend with the others the way my apple blended with the cider.” The metaphor in Bunting’s story is obvious to adults but not to young children, who are drawn into the drama of this quiet narrative, illustrated with Ted Lewin’s light-filled paintings. Highly Commended, 2007 Charlotte Zolotow Award (Ages 5–8)

Farah feels alone, even when surrounded by her classmates. She listens and nods but doesn’t speak. It’s hard being the new kid in school, especially when you’re from another country and don’t know the language. Then, on a field trip to an apple orchard, Farah discovers there are lots of things that sound the same as they did at home, from dogs crunching their food to the ripple of friendly laughter. As she helps the class make apple cider, Farah connects with the other students and begins to feel that she belongs.

Ted Lewin’s gorgeous sun-drenched paintings and Eve Bunting’s sensitive text immediately put the reader into another child’s shoes in this timely story of a young Muslim immigrant.