MY HOME IS MY BACKPACK

FLORIS BOOKS, 2025

 MY HOME IS MY BACKPACK is written by EUGENIA PERRELLA and illustrated by ANGELA SALERNO. Today, traditional Thanksgiving Day, feels like the exact right day to share this remarkable picture book.

Whether you find yourself seated around a table with more relatives than you remembered having, or serving at a community dinner, or even if you see this traditional day as a reminder of your many losses (as many Native People do), I believe strongly that every day should be a day of giving thanks. That includes good days, bad days, depressed days, or manic ones. That, of course, is more than challenging, but can be achieved if developed as a habit. Some habits are easier to establish than others, but this one could be launched today, perhaps with the title of this book. 

Read it before judging me. Please. 

MY HOME IS MY BACKPACK is a fictional story filled with strengths and truths. Clara, the narrator, introduces her family of five (Mamá, Papá, Pedro, and Coco, her dog) on a starlit night overlooking a Mexican village. They are looking for  shooting stars, a happy habit in itself. It's there that Clara hears they will begin a journey the next day, a "leaving" that she anticipated. Within a few page turns readers feel the passage of days, of dangers, of storytelling and of sadness. Papá asks them to remember that they carry their home with them, that everyone does. Over the course of storms and adventures in an enormous cave, Clara begins to visualize the many migrators in their massive passage as individuals, each with houses floating above them (simple white line figures resembling Monopoly houses). She feels the love and safety of her own family and knows that HOME is with them, not only in their backpacks, but in their hearts. On one night of their long journey as they lie on the ground and search the sky for shooting stars to wish on. Clara says that if she is lucky enough to have a wish come true, it would be to reach safety and live in a house with her family, a house that would hold them all as it would hold the special homes they carry in their hearts and in their backpacks. Illustrations are welcoming and realistic, revealing settings and cultural elements that inform but also patterns of family and relationships that feel familiar regardless of backgrounds.

Notice, they haven't reached that place of safety, their lives are still in jeopardy. Why count this as a THANKSGIVING book? Not because of the contrast with the many of us who have such homes. It's always easier to be grateful when we compare ourselves to those with fewer blessings. Instead, I see it as a perfect example of a family with a lifetime habit. A habit of giving thanks. Clara is grateful, daily, for her family. She appreciates joy when they find it, even during a storm, regardless of danger. She turns that gratitude into hope and faith. 

The author mentions that her story was inspired by a photo documentary series that captures images of migrants and others with the full contents of their backpacks, revealing the meager necessities they must include in order to make their way to a better life or away from a life of fear and danger. International migration measures in the millions each year, with climate, war, famine, and other conditions making those numbers rise rather than fall. If those conditions don't affect our immediate lives, consider how easy it should be for us to recognize reasons to give thanks, day after day, always remembering that having a safe house in which to protect the special homes of our hearts (or backpacks).