"How My Family Lives in America"
by Susan Kuklin

Student Edition
Unit 5, pp. 174–189

Narrative nonfiction gives factual information about real people and events in the form of a story. Look for interesting facts about the three children in this Snapshot.

Sanu, Eric, and April are all Americans living in New York City. Each child has a parent who was born in another country. Each has a story to tell.
Sanu and her brother have African names. Sanu has the same name as an African princess from long ago. Her brother, Badu, was named for a famous African warrior. Their father grew up in Senegal in West Africa. Sanu's African grandparents still live there. She visited them once and learned some African words. Sanu's mother grew up in Baltimore. Sanu's mommy works in a hairstyling shop. There Mommy might braid someone's hair into a Senegalese twist. Sanu likes to go grocery shopping with Daddy. He laughs that in Africa the wife buys and cooks the food. Here he helps to do both. Mommy reminds him that this is America. Sometimes the family eats the way people in Senegal eat. Everyone uses hands to scoop food from a large bowl. The bowl is placed on a cloth on the floor. This is the custom in Senegal. Sanu is happy to be African American, with customs from both Africa and America.
Eric lives in an apartment with his parents and their pet parrot. They are Hispanic Americans. His daddy and all of his grandparents came from Puerto Rico, an island close to Florida. His mommy and he were born in New York City. Eric and Daddy like baseball. It is a popular sport both in Puerto Rico and in New York. Eric liked being able to play ball last winter, when he and his parents visited Puerto Rico. At home Eric and his family speak Spanish and English. His good friends, Irma and Glen, are from the Dominican Republic. They also speak Spanish. People who come from a place where Spanish is spoken are called Hispanic. One of Eric's favorite foods is rice with chicken and beans. He helps Mommy make it. First they put the beans in water and leave them there overnight. That makes them soft. Then he helps her mix the special spices that go into the pot of beans. Eric sees his nana Carmen every day. On some nights, friends visit and do Spanish dances like the merengue. Eric likes to mention that his family enjoys dancing almost as much as baseball.
April lives in New York with her Mama and Papa and her older sister and brother. Both of their parents came to New York from Taiwan, an island next to China. April and her family are Chinese Americans. April also has a Chinese name, Chin Lan. Chin means "admire," and Lan means "orchid." She and her brother and sister go to public school during the week. On weekends they go to Chinese school. There they learn to speak and write Chinese. To make calligraphy, April uses a brush and special paper made from rice. April and Papa like to play Tangram together. They make different shapes with the pieces. April knows that the Chinese admire older people because they are wise. She says that when she grows up, she will teach this to her own family.

From How My Family Lives in America. Copyright © 1992 by Susan Kuklin. Reprinted with permission of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division. All rights reserved.

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