Book Descriptions
for The Shape of Home by Rashin Kheiriyeh
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
On her first day of school in the United States, young Rashin’s breakfast includes a round smiley face pancake, a honey bottle shaped like a bear, and oval eggs with happy faces drawn on. The rainy walk to school is under an umbrella shaped like a cat, past lines of people, and cars and bicycles with circular wheels. She remembers walking to school in Iran, where the bread from Mr. Hassan’s bakery was shaped like the braid in her own hair, and she and the other girls in their white hijabs reminded people of a carton of eggs. In Rashin’s new classroom, the teacher invites the students to introduce themselves and the places they come from. Each student describes their native country’s shape as reminiscent of something familiar: Benin looks like a flashlight, Japan like a seahorse, Italy like a boot. Rashin describes Iran like a cat. And their new home, the United States? The students decide it looks like a friendly whale. “And by the end of the day, my classroom is shaped like home.” Cheerful mixed-media illustrations convey young Rashin’s joyful outlook while providing concrete imagery for the country comparisons in this ebullient picture book. (Ages 4-8)
CCBC Choices 2022. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2022. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
“A joyful, wildly imaginative book” —The New York Times
It’s Rashin’s first day of school in America! Everything is a different shape than what she’s used to: from the foods on her breakfast plate to the letters in the books! And the kids' families are from all over! The new teacher asks each child to imagine the shape of home on a map. Rashin knows right away what she’ll say: Iran looks like a cat! What will the other kids say?
What about the country YOUR family is originally from? Is it shaped like an apple? A boot? A torch?
Open this book to join Rashin in discovering the true things that shape a place called home.
P R A I S E
★ “A creative, child-centered picture book about finding a new home after immigration. Ebulliently illustrated.”
—Kirkus (starred)
★ “It’s hard to find a more joyful take on the first day of school in a new country than that found in Kheiriyeh’s new work.”
—School Library Journal (starred)
★ “Exuberant...A warm and welcoming story about a group of children who may have come from other places but have found a classroom that is ‘shaped like a home.’”
—Booklist (starred)
It’s Rashin’s first day of school in America! Everything is a different shape than what she’s used to: from the foods on her breakfast plate to the letters in the books! And the kids' families are from all over! The new teacher asks each child to imagine the shape of home on a map. Rashin knows right away what she’ll say: Iran looks like a cat! What will the other kids say?
What about the country YOUR family is originally from? Is it shaped like an apple? A boot? A torch?
Open this book to join Rashin in discovering the true things that shape a place called home.
P R A I S E
★ “A creative, child-centered picture book about finding a new home after immigration. Ebulliently illustrated.”
—Kirkus (starred)
★ “It’s hard to find a more joyful take on the first day of school in a new country than that found in Kheiriyeh’s new work.”
—School Library Journal (starred)
★ “Exuberant...A warm and welcoming story about a group of children who may have come from other places but have found a classroom that is ‘shaped like a home.’”
—Booklist (starred)
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.
