Drita, My Homegirl- Meeting #18

Our third meeting of the 2015-16 school year was on Drita, My Homegirl by Jenny Lombard.  This book was a story of two worlds colliding as Drita, a refugee from Kosovo ends up in NYC.  She doesn't speak English and a girl in her class befriends her and they both learn about the other's culture.  The girls learned a lot about Kosovo, imagined what it must be like to go somewhere new, and not speak the language, and thought how difficult it was for the girls to connect.  In the end, they have more in common than they realize.

Mostly thumbs up, with one side thumb vote

We used our general discussion questions to help guide the discussion.  The girls discussed how both the characters changed throughout the story and how they learned from each other.

For the activity, the girls colored black and white filigree coloring pages.  Filigree is a time honored tradition of metal smithing in Kosovo.  This website explains a little about filigree in Kosovo.   A google image search for "filigree coloring page" will yield a lot of options to choose from.  I picked two and printed copies for the girls to color.

Coloring filigree designs

We always have a great time together :)  Next month, we are reading Lily's Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff.