Someone New

In “Someone New”, author Anne Sibley O'Brien shows the challenges of three new students as they navigate their first days of school and explores with current students how to be a welcoming community to the newcomers. Though Maria, Jin, and Fatimah come from different cultures, the students soon find that they all share many similarities. Whether readers are new themselves or meeting those who are new, there are lessons to be learned here about perseverance, bravery, and inclusion, and O'Brien's lessons are heartfelt and poetically rendered.    

“Someone New” is read by Shelley Keeling, ESL teacher in the Denver Public Schools.  She is aided by her children, Chiara (5th grade) and Che (3rd grade) as they talk about their own experiences in a bilingual school making new students feel welcome in their new environment.

Filmed by Mary Keeling.