From Far Away is Saoussan Askar’s story of immigrating to Toronto as a child, fleeing civil war in Lebanon. The transition was new and scary, and Saoussan struggled at first with how different everything was. She even wanted to change her name to Susan, but her mother made her change it back. With the assistance of Robert Munsch, her story was first published when she was only in grade 5!

New beginnings – whether they are new classes, new places, or new people – can sometimes feel scary. Write about a time that you were nervous to try something new, but it ended up being great!