Remix: Conversations with Immigrant Teenagers

by Marina Budhos

A thoughtful collection of profiles of teenagers from countries around the world... read more

A thoughtful collection of profiles of teenagers from countries around the world who have emigrated to the United States is drawn from interviews conducted by author Marina Budhos, who clearly approached each interview as a meeting with a distinct individual rather than forcing common threads and themes to emerge. As the teens talk about themselves, the struggles, the challenges and the benefits of life in their new home are revealed along with their personalities. Each also talks about the cultural clash that they inevitably face in one or more ways: between life in their native land and life in America, between their new ways of doing things and traditions their parents hold dear, between cultures and groups within the communities in which they are living. If there is one thing that connects them all-to one another and to teenagers everywhere-it is the mixture of innocence and wisdom, hope and pain, that characterizes their personalities and their lives. They are hardened by experience and tenderly naïve. In her introduction, Budhos writes, "In music, a remix is a composite of different musical styles. These teenagers I met are creating their own remix, piecing together the ruptures and pain, the challenges and excitement of their journeys." Budhos weaves the portraits with her own observations about each of the teens, offering acute commentary on the feelings that may sometimes lurk behind the words. One of the teens profiled, originally from Laos, lives in Madison. (Age 14 and up)

© Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2000

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