Kanzi's family is new to the USA from Egypt, and she wants to fit in with the kids at school. A classmate teases Kanzi when Mama calls her habibti, but her teacher invites her to share something special from home, and Kanzi brings a quilt her Teita made. With Mama's help, the class creates a bulletin-board quilt with everyone's name written in Arabic characters, which sparks another class to make a similar display of names in Japanese characters. I love the support Kanzi finds from her teacher and mother for sharing elements of her culture!

 

Publisher's description: Kanzi’s family has moved from Egypt to America, and on her first day in a new school, what she wants more than anything is to fit in. Maybe that’s why she forgets to take the kofta sandwich her mother has made for her lunch, but that backfires when Mama shows up at school with the sandwich. Mama wears a hijab and calls her daughter Habibti (dear one). When she leaves, the teasing starts. That night, Kanzi wraps herself in the beautiful Arabic quilt her teita (grandma) in Cairo gave her and writes a poem in Arabic about the quilt. Next day her teacher sees the poem and gets the entire class excited about creating a “quilt” (a paper collage) of student names in Arabic. In the end, Kanzi’s most treasured reminder of her old home provides a pathway for acceptance in her new one.