Painted Words

Title:  Painted Words (Marianthe’s Story: One)

Author:  Aliki

Illustrations:  Aliki

Greenwillow Books (1998)

This is the story of a young girl from a foreign land, going to school in America for the first time.  She did not understand the words being spoken and written around her but through body language and painting pictures she is able to tell her own story to the class.  In so doing, she has encouraged her family to learn and tell their stories as well.  The other students understand her story and in the end want to create stories of their own.  The theme of this story could be the story of any child being forced to move from their homeland, to a new school, new language and new culture different from their own and their struggle to become a part of their new environment.

The illustrations are very appropriate as they depict the feeling and thoughts of young Mari and the children and people around her.  It corresponds nicely with the fact that she is telling her story through her paintings.  As she tries to decipher the language being used around her the text reflects the distortions that she would hear as an English language learner.  As the story proceeds the words become clearer to her.

I think the story and the pictures are an authentic representation of what it would feel like for any ESL student new to an American classroom.  It shows Mari reacting in a positive yet truthful way when her feelings are hurt by one of the students in her class.  This part of the story would be a good segway into a discussion of diversity, bullying, etc.  The author’s purpose is to help the reader understand what it must feel like to be different from those around you.

I would recommend this to elementary school teachers as a way to help introduce a new student into class or the fact that different cultures do exist but we are all the same as people.