One Book Agnes Irwin Selections Revealed!
	One Book Agnes Irwin is a school-wide book club that promotes literacy and strengthens AIS community ties. By assigning developmentally appropriate books across all divisions that highlight a global experience and facilitating discussions between parents and daughters, we hope to cast a worldwide lens on the issues that affect women and girls. Students will discover that everyone has a story, through the reading of books about girls from different parts of the world. Special guests will enhance their exploration of different cultures through talks, performances and class visits. Our goal is to encourage girls to find their own story within and to come to the realization that a common human experience embraces us all. See below for the 2011 titles by division and One Book Agnes Irwin upcoming events. One Book Agnes Irwin order forms will be available at the AIS Book Fair starting November 6th.   One Green Apple by Eve Bunting Grades: Pre-K & K A young Muslim immigrant girl feels isolated as she adjusts to life in her new school in the United States. On a field trip to an apple orchard, she is not sure she will ever make friends. When she places a green apple in a cider press and her classmates use red apples, the cider they make together is delicious – a reminder that we enrich one another’s lives with our different experiences. Mama's Saris by Poojah Makhijani Grades: 1 & 2 A little girl is fascinated with her mother's saris and discovers the cultural and inter-generational connections that accompany them. Four Feet, Two Sandals by Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammad **November 18 to January 16 - Shoe Drive for Soles4Souls Grades: 3 & 4 Two girls live in an Afghani refugee camp. As a mark of their growing friendship, they share one pair of sandals. The Red Umbrella by Christina Gonzalez Grades: All Middle School In 1961, a young Cuban girl and her little brother are sent to the United States by their parents in a desperate attempt to provide them with a better future. The children end up living with a family in Nebraska. Will they ever see their parents again? Will they ever adjust to life in the U.S.? Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas **January 18 at 7 p.m. - Author visit and presentation Grades: All Upper School This poignant and funny memoir chronicles the author’s move from Iran to America in 1971 at age seven, the adventures and difficulties of living in a new country and the antics of her extended family.

	Division Events
	Please check back here for more details closer to each event!
	Lower School January 20, 2012 - Lower School, 1:45 p.m. Master storyteller Charlotte Blake Alston will visit to show students how stories connect us all. Middle School January 26 - MS/US Cafeteria, 6 p.m. Rescheduled - details to follow. Girls will enjoy "One Book Fiesta" meal prepared by CulinArt.   Our Middle School book selection, The Red Umbrella, tells the story of a young girl in Cuba in 1961 during the time of the Castro revolution. Her parents send her and her little brother to the United States, as part of the Pedro Pan program. They end up in Nebraska, unsure they will ever see their parents again. The well-meaning couple with whom they live try to make them feel at home by cooking rice and beans, a dish our main character remembers fondly from her home in Cuba. The food does not taste like she remembers, and it becomes clear to the reader how often we link food and nurture, finding comfort in the familiarity of taste and smell. We all have foods to which we relate in such a way – whether it is a creamy mac and cheese or a spicy rice and beans dish, we connect certain foods to holidays, celebrations and happy memories. Upper School & All AIS Community Members January 18, 2012 - West-Wike Theatre, 7 p.m.  Firoozeh Dumas, author of national bestseller Funny in Farsi, will present to the entire community and share her personal stories about growing up Iranian in America. Throughout the school day, Dumas will meet with World History students during class and host a Question & Answer session for girls at lunch.