Pistes d'exploration

Discuss the larger themes in the book. What do you think the author was trying to tell the reader? How do the illustrations add to the overall messages?

In a small group, choose a short section (perhaps a chapter) to interpret. Add words for a text version of the story.

Choose one of the characters in the book and record the story from his/her point of view.

Discuss the larger themes in the book. What do you think the author was trying to tell the reader? How do the illustrations add to the overall messages?

In a small group, choose a short section (perhaps a chapter) to interpret. Add words for a text version of the story.

Choose one of the characters in the book and record the story from his/her point of view.

Wordless illustrated texts offer multiple points of entry and encourage the exploration of codes of image as well as conventions of illustrated texts. Notice how these codes (line, colour, shadow, shape, size, scale) impact the way readers respond. Consider how telling the story through sequential images affects the reading experience and meaning-making process.

In small groups, discuss your initial reactions following a first reading. After rereading the story, discuss its structure and what you think it means. Use the text to support your ideas.

Following discussion, use a response process to interpret the text. Share your ideas with a response group before writing and build on the group’s ideas as well.

In small groups, discuss the challenges of immigration and how they can affect every aspect of a person’s life.

Write a script for a section of the book. Present it to the class with a partner.

Analyze the illustrations and identify symbols that the author uses to represent the immigrant experience. Create a glossary for these symbols, including a picture and a definition.

Grandfather's Journey, Is This Panama?: A Migration Story, TheKids Book of Canadian Immigration, Island of Hope and Sorrow: The Story of Grosse Île

Mots-clés

Comic book , circular story , graphic novels , illustrations (monochrome) , immigration , journeys , travel , wordless book

Commentaire descriptif

In this book, readers are placed in the same position as the unnamed immigrant hero - left without language to interpret a new world. Atmospheric illustrations emphasize the theme of being a stranger in a strange land. Realistically rendered people and everyday objects reside in surreal, otherworldly landscapes. This country is peppered with signs and documents in a fictitious script. The hero must leave his family and his country, haunted by foreboding shadows. As he tries to immigrate, the hero’s anxiety and confusion are convincing and unsettling. He struggles to understand – and to explain. Readers will empathize as he is reduced to the state of a helpless child with much to learn. The theme is enlarged by introducing other characters with their own stories of arrival: their own foreboding shadows, departures and new beginnings. By engaging with the community, the hero gains the knowledge and ability to bring his family to this new place. The story ends on a moving note when the hero’s child gives directions to a young woman carrying a battered suitcase. The cycle continues, the suggestion is clear: We are all arriving; we can help one another.