The voice on the intercom repeated the boarding call. Cristina picked up her carry-on bag. It was heavy with all the treasures she couldn’t force into her suitcase, but couldn’t bear to leave behind. Her feet shuffled reluctantly through the gate after Bete. The black tarmac reflected the heat of the Brazilian sun. She stopped half way to the plane and looked back at the terminal. It seemed like she had done this a hundred times before. It never got any easier. Vicente had his arm around Márcia who rested her dark, curly head on her brother’s shoulder and waved a last farewell.
"I hate good-byes." Cristina clenched her teeth and started up the steps to the plane.
* * *
Cristina Larson is American. Or is she? She grew up in Brazil and feels more Brazilian than American. Jason is the one who is American. Or is he? His grandmother came from Korea, and he doesn’t look like his Swedish-American neighbors in Rum River, Minnesota. And sometimes being different can be downright dangerous.
About Writing Between Two Worlds:
My two daughters were born in Brazil, South America. When they were small, our neighbor celebrated her fifteenth birthday. In Brazil, as in the rest of Latin America, a girl’s fifteenth birthday is a special occasion to mark her change from a little girl to a young lady. I couldn’t help asking, “What if my daughter grew up in Brazil, anticipating her
quinze anos, as it is called, and was stuck in the States the year she turned fifteen?” As it turned out, my daughters grew up in Africa. But the year my youngest turned fifteen, I told myself, “If you are ever going to write that story, it must be now, before you forget what fifteen is like.” Lots of my own feelings about not fitting in back in America after living overseas came into the story as well as the experiences of my daughters.
Writing Tip:
Story ideas are all around you. You can develop them by asking a series of “what if?” questions. What if my main character had to come to America just before her fifteenth birthday? What if she left her best friend behind? What if she didn’t like America? What if the boy she liked didn’t quite fit in either? Your story grows as you answer your own questions.
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Things to Talk About
1. What are some of the things that made Cristina feel like she didn’t belong in Minnesota?
2. How did the two sisters respond differently to the challenge of moving back and forth between worlds?
3. Why do you think Jason was so uninterested in anything Korean in the beginning?
4. Rob was openly hostile to Jason. In what ways was Lisa just as racist?
5. Have you ever felt like you didn’t belong? In what ways did you feel different? How did you handle your situation? With which character do you most identify—Cristina, Bete, Jason, Lisa or Rob?
6. Cristina’s parents made decisions for the family that weren’t necessarily what she would have chosen. How much should parents involve children in decisions that affect their lives such as where to live?
7. Growing up is an important change. Anthropologists talk about ‘rites of passage’—ceremonies that mark significant changes in life, such as Cristina’s fifteenth birthday party. How do young people in your community mark the transition from child to young adult?
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Books about Third Culture Kids
Third culture kids (TCKs) are those who spend a significant part of their growing up years in a culture different from their parents’ home culture. Like Cristina Larson in
Between Two Worlds, they often find that they belong to neither one culture nor the other. They make up a ‘third culture’ of those who move among different worlds. These books will help you to understand more about that third culture.
Fiction:
When Africa Was Home by Karen Lynn Williams, illustrated by Floyd Cooper (1991). New York, Orchard.
My own daughter’s strongly identified with this picture book about a family missing Africa when they have returned to the United States.
Homesick; My Own Story by Jean Fritz (1982). New York, Putnam.
Popular children’s author Jean Fritz was born in China in the 1920s. In this fictionalized version of her life she describes how she thought she was American until she got there and realized she didn’t fit in.
Bloomability by Sharon Creech (1998). New York, Harper Trophy.
Thirteen-year-old Dinnie has no intention of enjoying boarding school in Switzerland, but she discovers the richness of cross-cultural living.
Jakarta Missing by Jane Kurtz (2001). New York, Greenwillow.
Dakar isn’t the only one in her family to long for Africa during the year they spend in Cottonwood, North Dakota. Although I found the ending unsettling, the struggles are all too real.
The Real Plato Jones by Nina Bawden (1994). London, Hamish Hamilton.
With a Welsh father and a Greek mother, Plato Jones feels “all mixed up... When I’m there, I want to be here, and when I’m here I want to be there! It’s as if I were split in two. And I don’t know which half is me.” (p.93) It takes helping his Greek grandfather’s village in a major emergency to make Plato feel at home with the two sides of his heritage.
Non-fiction for adults:
Third Culture Kids; the Experience of Growing up Among Worlds, 2nd ed. rev. by David Pollock and Ruth van Reken (2001) Nicholas Brealey
Pollock and van Reken take a balanced look at the challenges and rewards of living cross culturally. This book is a must for anyone raising children between worlds or trying to fit in as an adult TCK.
Letters Never Sent; One Woman’s Journey from Hurt to Wholeness by Ruth Van Reken (1995). Indianapolis, IN, Letters.
Van Reken examines significant struggles in her own TCK experience in fictional letters to her family. They are enlightening, but painful to read.
