What-If Sara

Lisa Arsenault is an elementary-school teacher in Ajax, Ontario.

Friday is Momma’s baking day, and little Sara, watching her knead the
dough, imagines herself in another time and place in which the dough has
been transformed into a wall behind which she is helping to defend her
fellow villagers from invaders. Unfortunately, while she is building her
dream wall of dough, she is in reality making a mess of Momma’s dough.
Other mishaps occur when she lets her imagination roam. But then Sara
makes up for her mistakes, utilizing that same imagination.

This picture book is both interesting to read and useful as a teaching
tool. It can be read and enjoyed simply as a story about a little girl
with a vivid imagination that gets her into scrapes. The book’s
underlying theme of the new immigrant experience is handled subtly, as a
story within a story. For example, Sara’s parents cannot write
English, and one of the ways Sara redeems herself is by helping Poppa, a
tailor, write out a customer’s bill.

The full-page color illustrations are particularly noteworthy. The
family’s cozy apartment epitomizes urban life in the mid–20th
century. The colors and furnishings are true to the period. That there
is not much money is implicit in the artist’s depictions, but there
are homemade pies cooling on the counter and a cat curled on a chair,
reflecting warmth and domesticity.

What-If Sara would provide a useful starting point for discussion about
the experiences of new citizens.