Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/avas-garden-celebrating-bilingual-children-in-books/5021366/
In 1973, my husband Willy accepted the offer of a brief internship in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and we moved our little urban family into an apartment near the beach for a yearlong adventure. Forty years later, we're still here. Beyond the incredible beauty of the ocean and the light that's attracted artists here since Fitz Henry Lane painted his harbor filled with schooners, we found, and fell in love with, community. I had never lived in a place where people cared about each other so deeply. Gloucester is a place whose strength comes from immigrant families, many of whom came from Sicily to make a hard living fishing from those schooners. The language I heard in the market and the coffee shop was as likely to be Italian as English, and I soon learned that the children who grew up celebrating the traditions of these strong, loving, extended families were happy to share them.
My friend Ava is a third grader whose father and grandfather are among the last of the struggling fishermen. Ava speaks only English. Her grandparents speak mostly Sicilian Italian, but communication is never a problem, especially at the dinner table where Nonna serves delicious ...