A Few More Strangers in Strange Lands

I want to just mention a few more picture books that feature American kids traveling to other cultures. Two of them are similar, where the child travels with a parent to visit extended family. There, they discover the culture of their heritage and learn more about the country's history and why people might have wanted to leave for America.

Going Home, Coming Home by Truong Tran and illustrated by Ann Phong, is about a girl who visits Vietnam for the first time with her parents. This book is a bilingual edition with both English and Vietnamese. The Trip Back Home by Janet S. Wong and illustrated by Bo Jia, tells of a girl who returns to Korea with her mother.

Something a little different and more directly educational about a foreign culture is The Way We Do It In Japan by Geneva Cobb Iijima and illustrated by Paige Billin-Frye. In this book, a Caucasian boy's family must move from the US to Japan because of the father's job. Encountering a completely foreign culture for the first time, the boy learns some of the idiosyncrasies of the Japanese culture, including discovering strange foods, driving on the left side of the road, taking your shoes off inside the house, and cleaning their own classroom. As far as true foreignness goes, this is the only book I can think of. However, with its cartoonish illustrations and straightforward descriptions of the Japanese culture, it doesn't seem to have the same depth that the other books do.

In the picture book world, is being a complete foreigner in a new country less interesting than being an "other" in America discovering one's heritage? Can you think of any other picture books that fall in either category? What are your thoughts?