Straw Bag, Tin Box, Cloth Suitcase

July 3, 2023
In a pieced-together collaboration told via the lens of three carryalls, individuals across generations and homelands recall instances of families seeking new lives in America. Yolen’s story features pale-skinned Sarah who, while visiting Nana, finds a locked straw bag that prompts Nana’s telling of “your Great great grandmother, Manya,” who escaped a shtetl in Ukraine after the tsar implemented pogroms. Lotfi Gill’s tale begins when Grace, portrayed with tan skin, discovers an old tin lunch box that served as her Momma’s suitcase when she fled Iran amid increasingly dangerous protests. And Artiga de Paz narrates how brown-skinned Raquel’s spotting a cloth suitcase triggers memories of life navigating gang violence and family separation in El Salvador. Heavily detailed paragraphs from each creator appear on every spread, paralleling their personal telling’s beats without situating the stories in time. Tikkou’s textural, collage-feeling illustrations use scribbly lines to portray scenes domestic and historical.
Ages 8–12.