While on a school field trip to an orchard to make cider, a young immigrant named Farah gains self-confidence when the green apple she picks perfectly complements the other students' red apples. - (Baker & Taylor)

As a Muslin immigrant to the country who can hardly speak the native language of her new land, Farah feels like an outsider amongst her classmates, but when they all go to a field trip to an apple orchard, Farah finally sees many similarities to the world she left behind and, through her observations and shared experiences, begins to feel like one of the gang. 15,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)

Farah feels alone, even when surrounded by her classmates. She listens and nods but doesn’t speak. It’s hard being the new kid in school, especially when you’re from another country and don’t know the language. Then, on a field trip to an apple orchard, Farah discovers there are lots of things that sound the same as they did at home, from dogs crunching their food to the ripple of friendly laughter. As she helps the class make apple cider, Farah connects with the other students and begins to feel that she belongs.

Ted Lewin’s gorgeous sun-drenched paintings and Eve Bunting’s sensitive text immediately put the reader into another child’s shoes in this timely story of a young Muslim immigrant.

Booklist Reviews

/*Starred Review*/ Gr. 1-3. This poignant, attractive offering fills a growing need for picture books about contemporary immigrants of Arab descent, without limiting its relevance to a single ethnic group. On her "second day in the new school in the new country," Farah, who cannot speak English, joins her class on a field trip to an apple orchard, where she enjoys the sunny day but feels desperately isolated, "tight inside [herself]." Though Farah wears a headscarf and knows that there are "difficulties" between her native and adoptive countries, specifics of religion and politics never distract from the child's experiences: the hay smelling of "dry sunshine," the spark of optimism kindled when classmates accept her help at the cider press. Young readers will respond as much to Bunting's fine first-person narrative as to Lewin's double-page, photorealistic watercolors, which, though occasionally stiff, plainly show the intelligence behind Farah's silent exterior. The old-fashioned assimilation metaphor Farah sees in the cider-making experience ("I will blend with the others the way my apple blended with the cider") needn't have been so overt, but with its large, read-aloud-friendly trim size and its age-appropriate premise, this book will work beautifully for teachers hoping to foster empathy for immigrant students, or for use in furthering character education aims. ((Reviewed June 1 & 15, 2006)) Copyright 2006 Booklist Reviews.

Horn Book Guide Reviews

Recent immigrant Farah visits an apple orchard with her new class. Her lack of English skills and the [cf2]dupatta[cf1] she wears on her head set her apart, but two classmates make friendly overtures. Bright, sunny watercolors evoke the sensory joys of an orchard, and while the story's message is overt, the text conveys both Farah's initial trepidation and eventual pleasure. Copyright 2006 Horn Book Guide Reviews.

Kirkus Reviews

Lewin's sunlit watercolors, full of space and shadow, are a lovely match for Bunting's simple but never simplistic story. A girl named Farah in her second day at school visits an orchard with her class. She has no "outside-myself" words yet. This place where girls and boys can sit together, and where she is the only one with a headcovering, seems very strange to her. But the dogs in the orchard crunching the fallen apples sound like her dog in her home country. Each child is to pick one apple to bring to the cider press. Farah chooses one that is small and green and fits in her hand, a bit different from the others, just as she is. When they make room for her, she helps push the large handle to make the cider and then takes a drink. Belches, sneezes and laughter sweet and sour sound familiar to her. "App-ell," she finally says aloud. While making its point, this is a very gentle story about being new and different, with the author delivering her message in her classically subtle style. (Picture book. 5-9) Copyright Kirkus 2006 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.

PW Annex Reviews

Gr 1-4 -As a Muslim girl rides in a hay wagon heading to an apple orchard on a class trip, the dupatta on her head setting her apart, she observes that while some of the children seem friendly, others are not. Her father has explained, "…we are not always liked here. Our home country (never named in the story) and our new one have had difficulties." Later, when she puts a green apple into the cider press instead of a ripe red one as her classmates have done, they protest. But the cider from all their apples mixed together is delicious-a metaphor for the benefits of intermingling people who are different. Lewin's watercolors radiate sunlight and capture the gamut of emotions that Farah experiences on this challenging second day in her new school in the U.S. They show her downcast silence and sense of isolation because she can't speak the language, her shy smile when a classmate befriends her, and, finally, her triumphant smile as she speaks one of her first English words, "App-ell." This story, along with Bernard Wolf's Coming to America: A Muslim Family's Story (Lee & Low, 2003), can heighten youngsters' awareness of what it must be like to feel different and alone and that each person has something unique to contribute to the good of all.-Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT

School Library Journal Reviews

Gr 1-4 -As a Muslim girl rides in a hay wagon heading to an apple orchard on a class trip, the dupatta on her head setting her apart, she observes that while some of the children seem friendly, others are not. Her father has explained, "…we are not always liked here. Our home country (never named in the story) and our new one have had difficulties." Later, when she puts a green apple into the cider press instead of a ripe red one as her classmates have done, they protest. But the cider from all their apples mixed together is delicious-a metaphor for the benefits of intermingling people who are different. Lewin's watercolors radiate sunlight and capture the gamut of emotions that Farah experiences on this challenging second day in her new school in the U.S. They show her downcast silence and sense of isolation because she can't speak the language, her shy smile when a classmate befriends her, and, finally, her triumphant smile as she speaks one of her first English words, "App-ell." This story, along with Bernard Wolf's Coming to America: A Muslim Family's Story (Lee & Low, 2003), can heighten youngsters' awareness of what it must be like to feel different and alone and that each person has something unique to contribute to the good of all.-Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT