Desta is sad when her father tells her he has to go home to Ethiopia to visit her grandmother, who is ill. “Ethiopia is so far away . . . I don’t want you to go,” she says. Her father shares his memories of his homeland and childhood with Desta to help her understand where he is going and why. “Now my emayay is very sick. It is time for me to go home and be with her for a while.” Desta is still reluctant for him to leave until she has the chance to consider everything her father has left behind. “I think you miss your home a lot . . . and you emayay misses you a lot,” she tells him. Jane Kurtz’s storytelling features rich, poetic descriptions of the father’s Ethiopian homeland and the warm, affectionate relationship that father and daughter share. The expressive faces in E.B. Lewis’s watercolor paintings echo that affection. (Ages 5-8)

As her father prepares for a trip back to his childhood home in Ethiopia, Desta begins to worry. Where does her father truly belong--in the village of his youth or here in America with her? What was growing up in Ethiopia like? And will her father's love for his family be enough to bridge these two worlds and bring him back to her? •A powerful portrait of a contemporary American immigrant family •From a Coretta Scott King Honor-winning artist •Portrays a heartwarming father-daughter relationship •Junior Library Guild Selection