A Harvest Festival of Immigrants Uniting as a Community AMIR A Harvest Festival of Immigrants Uniting as a Community G. Hughes, Virgil MS

The story “Amir” comes from a book called Seedfolks.

PAUL FLEISCHMAN AUTHOR OF SEEDFOLKS

Amir is an immigrant from India.

This is the Indian flag.

Amir is an immigrant who moves to Cleveland, Ohio.

Amir’s neighborhood is made up of brick apartment buildings like this one:

Amir had always heard that Polish men were tough steelworkers and that the women cooked a lot of cabbage.

Amir owns a fabric store. G. Hughes, Virgil MS

Amir grows eggplant, onions, carrots and cauliflower in the community garden. G. Hughes, Virgil MS

Amir’s neighbors work together to clean the garden when someone dumps tires into it.

Amir meets a Polish woman. Imagine this is the Polish woman Amir befriends in the garden. Irena Sendler, a Polish woman who saved 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto during the Nazi occupation in World War II. She smuggled Jewish infants and children out of ghettos escaping almost certain death. G. Hughes, Virgil MS

The woman doesn’t pull carrots from her over-crowded garden because it reminds her of what Nazis did to Polish Jews in concentration camps. ROW OF CARROTS ROW OF POLISH PRISONERS G. Hughes, Virgil MS

Nazis would send Polish Jews to death camps like this one: G. Hughes, Virgil MS

Those who were not killed would end up like this: G. Hughes, Virgil MS

Amir and his friends build a brick barbecue like this one: G. Hughes, Virgil MS

The friends exchange their harvest like squash and pumpkins and celebrate during their harvest festival. G. Hughes, Virgil MS