Dear Michelle, Sharon & Mindy,

That you for this PB Party query opportunity. In A FLAG FULL OF SUNS, Sol is excited to be picked as class leader, but when she realizes that she’ll need to lead the pledge of allegiance, she faces a crisis of conscience. Leading the pledge means saying the words out loud, something she has only been pretending to do. Competing feelings of loyalty for her home country, Argentina, and her new country, the USA, lead her to come up with some creative and unusual solutions to her problem. Ultimately Sol realizes that with a name like hers (meaning sun/star) both flags represent her perfectly.

This story explores the divided feelings that childhood immigrants sometimes encounter as they strive for acceptance and belonging in a new home while wanting to remain loyal to their home culture. The story comes directly from my own experiences, struggles and epiphanies as a child immigrant from Argentina growing up in Buffalo, New York. It is a diversity and own voices story. For comp titles I see this as a sort of meeting between Rene Has Two Last Names by Rene Colato Lainez with Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match by Monica Brown.

I am a published author in academics and a professor of diversity education and teaching English to linguistic and cultural minority students. I have not yet been published in children’s literature.

Sol couldn’t wait to be Class Leader.

But when her turn finally came, Sol’s stomach felt fluttery.

Class Leader started the pledge every morning. Then everyone joined in… except Sol.

She only pretended to say the words. Saying them out loud didn’t feel right. It felt like being mean to the place she was born.