FernFolio

In recent years the community of Parkdale, in Toronto, has become home to many immigrants from Tibet. In 2006, with the help and encouragement of their school principal and some teachers as well as adults from the Tibetan community, a group of students at Parkdale formed the Tibetan Book Club and set out to write a book about their experiences as young immigrants from Tibet, a homeland none of them have ever visited but to which they all feel a deep and abiding attachment.
Beautifully illustrated by drawings, watercolours and photographs rendered by book club members, Tibet: Our Lives, Our Stories, chronicles their memories of refugee life in Nepal and Northern India, their cultural traditions and celebrations, and their long journeys to a new home in Toronto. Many of these students spent years living with relatives, while their parents travelled to Canada, found jobs, and then began the long process of sponsoring their children. They speak movingly of arriving in Canada overjoyed and nervous at the prospect of being reunited with their parents, and tearful after saying good-bye to the only families many have ever known.
New lives in Toronto have meant adapting to a new language, new customs and traditions, and new challenges and opportunities. Some write that their parents struggle in physically-demanding and low-paying jobs in order to offer their children a better future. All of them have set high goals for themselves, and want to make those parents proud. Each writer states that they feel very lucky to be living in Canada, and all express the profound wish for a free and independent Tibet.
This lovely book is a must read for those who want to understand more about Tibet and its people, and the experiences of young immigrants to Toronto, or to learn just how successfully young writers can share the stories of their lives.
FernFolio Editor