By Eloge Willy Kaneza
As immigration tensions continue to shape public debate across the United States, children’s books are increasingly becoming tools for emotional healing, cultural representation, and community belonging.
In an exclusive interview with Amjambo Africa, Kirsten Cappy — a children’s literacy advocate and founder of the Maine-based nonprofit I’m Your Neighbor Books — explains how literature can help immigrant children feel seen, protected, and connected while challenging Americans to rethink identity, memory, and what it truly means to welcome newcomers.
For years, Cappy has worked at the intersection of literacy, migration, and social belonging through I’m Your Neighbor Books, a nonprofit organization that distributes children’s literature representing immigrant and refugee families across the United States.
“We work with children’s books from babies to teenagers that represent immigrant and new generation families,” Cappy told Amjambo Africa. “When you see yourself and your family represented in a public space like a school or a library, you feel that you belong there.”
included in a Sanctuary Stories Book Box
Photo | Mark Mattos
Through school partnerships, public libraries, community programs, and traveling book collections, the organization seeks to create spaces where immigrant children can recognize themselves in stories — and where other American children can better understand the lives of newcomers.
“We also use those books with long-term white families to help build welcoming skills,” she said. “We want children to think deeply about who belongs in America and how.”
Books as sanctuary
One of the organization’s most visible initiatives is Sanctuary Stories, a program created to support children affected by immigration enforcement operations, detention, and family separation. Cappy describes the initiative as both literary and deeply humanitarian.
“We consider books to be a sanctuary,” she said. “There is such incredible trauma across the country — whether families are being separated or simply living with the fear of separation.”
According to Cappy, the organization has now sent thousands of books to classrooms, teachers, and families across the country. Some books directly address deportation and separation, including stories such as Efrén Divided, which follows a young boy whose mother is detained by immigration authorities. Others focus entirely on more positive feelings.
“We also send books that are just pure joy,” she explained. “Books about families spending time together. Kids need reminders of love, safety, and togetherness during stressful moments.”
To protect vulnerable families, the organization often works through teachers, neighbors, clergy members, and community advocates rather than directly collecting personal information from affected households. Still, the personal stories break through regularly.
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“Every day we receive messages from teachers saying a father has been detained or deported, or that children have disappeared from school because families are afraid,” Cappy said.
Fear beyond detention
For Cappy, one of the most damaging realities is not only deportation itself, but the atmosphere of fear surrounding immigrant communities. “There are children born in the United States who suddenly wonder whether they still belong here,” she said. “That has a huge impact on their mental health and their sense of stability.”
She argues that books can help children process trauma in ways direct conversation sometimes cannot. “When children experience trauma, books allow them to step slightly outside their own pain,” she explained. “A child sees another character going through something similar and realizes: I am not alone.” That emotional connection, she said, can become transformative.
“Stories reduce loneliness. They help children feel seen.”
Rethinking America through stories
As the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of its independence, Cappy believes the country is still struggling with fundamental questions about immigration and identity.
“Since 1776, more than 83 million immigrants have come to this country,” she said. “And yet every generation finds a new immigrant community to vilify.” Her organization recently launched the Welcoming Library: Traveling Collection, a mobile library initiative designed to circulate books about immigrant families through schools and communities nationwide.
The collection includes immigrant-centered picture books, educational materials, discussion guides, and portable library kits intended to move from classroom to classroom.
“The goal is to allow all children to meet immigrant families on the page,” Cappy explained. “It changes the perception of who is American.” She believes storytelling can also challenge political narratives that dehumanize migrants. “Politicians often use stories to create fear,” she said. “Books can respond with truths.”
Even fictional stories, she argues, often communicate emotional realities more honestly than political rhetoric. “Leaving your country is always painful,” Cappy said. “Migration divides families across oceans and continents. These books help children and communities understand that truth.”
Belonging in America
Throughout the interview, Cappy repeatedly returned to one word: belonging. She described belonging not as an abstract political concept, but as a deeply emotional experience.
“Belonging feels calm. It feels safe,” she said. “Sometimes it’s simply the feeling of recognition.” For many immigrant children, she explained, that recognition may come through seeing a family that resembles theirs in a school library or classroom.
“If you never see your community represented publicly, it sends a message that you are invisible,” she said. Representation, she added, is especially important for communities that remain largely absent from mainstream American media.
“We still need far more stories from African immigrant communities, from refugee families, from communities that are too often erased,” Cappy said.
Beyond politics
While immigration debates often dominate television screens and political campaigns, Cappy insists that ordinary human relationships remain essential. Living in Portland, she said she has witnessed both separation and solidarity between longtime residents and newer immigrant communities.
During recent immigration enforcement operations in Maine, she saw neighbors organize food deliveries, walk children to school, and support frightened families. “I saw people knocking on doors and saying: ‘I will help you,’” she recalled. But she also believes solidarity should not appear only during crises.
“The real question,” she said, “is how we continue being neighbors to each other every day.”
Looking ahead
Despite the current political climate, Cappy says she remains hopeful. She dreams of a future where books about immigrant trauma become historical reminders rather than contemporary realities. “I look forward to a day when stories about deportation and family separation feel like stories from America’s past,” she said.
Until then, she believes stories will remain essential tools of resistance, memory, and compassion. “I want children to grow without fear,” Cappy said. “I want them to feel free to imagine who they are and who they want to become.”
And perhaps most importantly, she hopes immigrant families understand that they are not alone. “The majority of this country stands with them,” she said. “We have always struggled as a nation to become more welcoming. But we can still choose what kind of country we want to be.”
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the early June 2026 print edition of Amjambo Africa.
