By Lynne Rae Perkins
New York : Greenwillow Books, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2025. J Fiction. 121 pages.
Lissie takes three airplanes to travel to Guatemala with her dad and grandma. It's farther than she has ever been before and she worries about this two-week long visit, especially because she doesn't know any Spanish. So much is different in this new place. But even more is familiar! As she and her family explore a Mayan pyramid, a bustling mercado and so on, they meet people and make tiny friendships.
This little book is a delightful travelogue with an emphasis on communication and connection. Illustrations and phonetic pronunciation accompany nearly one hundred Spanish words and phrases Lissie learns while she is in Guatemala. (These are also included in a glossary in the back). She finds other universal, unifying ways to communicate, too: pantomime, drawing, making crafts, playing games and sports, sharing a laugh. I would recommend this book as a quick read-aloud for a third- to sixth-grade classroom or especially for a family planning international travel. But At Home in a Faraway Place is so warm and so timely, I think any reader would feel inspired by Lissie. It takes courage, humility, and creativity to make connections, particularly across language barriers. Doing so will expand your entire world.
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