Sunday Storytime With Elly Berke

Join us for a storytime with local author Elly Berke. She will read her book Listen, Wonder, Ask. Book signing to follow.

Storytime is free, no RSVP required!

About Listen, Wonder, Ask

At the playground, Nadine hears a girl her age speaking to her doll in an unfamiliar language. Eager to learn more, Nadine asks the girl, Yan, if she has a “coming-here story.” Yan replies that she’s a recent immigrant from China, and the two children bond. Later, on her way home, Yan asks a woman named Symona, who’s singing in a different language as she gardens, about her coming-here story and learns that she emigrated from Russia as a young woman. Symona in turn connects with Rafid, from Bangladesh, after hearing him talking on the phone in a different tongue. In true “six degrees of separation” style, the book comes full circle as a young boy hears Nadine speaking Creole to her mother and asks about her country of origin; her mother explains that she herself is from Haiti, while Nadine was born here. Berke’s sweet tale of the domino effect that starts with one curious and accepting girl’s question is sorely needed in this time of division and discord, as is the characters’ use of the term “coming-here story” to inquire about others’ heritages, rather than the potentially more intrusive “Where are you from?” Powell’s soft and welcoming, watercolorlike illustrations capture present and past at once as each immigrant’s history is revealed.

About Elly Berke

Elly Berke is a writer, actor and ESL Teacher based in Somerville, MA. She celebrates multilingualism every day working in a dual language school and serving on the conference committee for the Multistate Association for Bilingual Education. For Listen, Wonder, Ask, her debut picture book, Elly was inspired by people she met while teaching English and working at New York's Lower East Side Tenement Museum.