Books can be a pathway to understanding another person's life, culture, and experiences — and few things represent these powerful ideas more than stories about immigration and assimilation.

This curated collection of titles beautifully captures the immigrant and refugee experiences through both the fiction and nonfiction lens. 

Younger students will love Muon Thi Van's Wishes, a powerful and touching picture book based on the author's experiences immigrating to the other side of the world with her family from Vietnam as a child. Packing up everything they can carry and boarding a crowded boat, the family's journey to find a better life is written in a poignant yet hopeful narrative children will understand.

Meanwhile, In the Spirit of a Dream  presents thirteen beautiful and memorable stories of immigrants of color from all walks of life as they made their way to the United States to become local heroes, politicians, artists, athletes, and more. 

Older readers will be mezmerized by Behind the Mountains, the captivating story of Celiane Espérance, who strives to be reunited with her father in Brooklyn as political unrest rips through her home of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Once in America, however, Celiane witnesses the struggles her family — her father, mother, and brother — have to endure in order to forge a new life. 

Use these titles to supplement lessons on history and culture and to spark powerful conversations around what it means to leave home for a completely new land.

Shop the best books about immigration experiences below! You can find all books and activities at The Teacher Store.