I'm Your Neighbor Books

I'm Your Neighbor Books I’m Your Neighbor Books strives to build a stronger nation—one where immigrants are welcomed and http://www.welcominglibrary.org/

I'M YOUR NEIGHBOR BOOKS strives to build a stronger America, one where immigrants are welcomed and where first-through-third-generation Americans truly belong. We facilitate deep engagement with the children’s books that represent our New Arrival and New American communities. By curating, loaning, and gifting these diverse titles with educational materials, we:

* Start conversations on modern imm

igration
* Refute false narratives about communities of color
* Create emotional connections to a vast diversity of voices
* Share the joy and strength of immigrant kids and families
* Build the cultural competency of all readers
* Lay the groundwork for cross-cultural communication

OUR CULTURAL BOOK DATABASE sorts and features books by the culture represented allowing for schools, libraries, and organizations to best select and share books that represent their neighborhoods and the diversity of the nation. This site also offers lesson plans and event kits to facilitate engagement between neighbors. https://www.imyourneighborbooks.org

THE WELCOMING LIBRARY is a pop-up community conversation on immigration. That conversation is driven by a collection of acclaimed picture books featuring New Arrival and New American families. Readers of all ages “meet” these families on the page and explore the commonalities of all families with embedded discussion questions. The collection — with its pop-up display unit — packs into a crate and travels between schools, libraries, and community centers in a given region building an environment of Welcoming and Belonging.

Author Sandra Cisneros once said, "We need books...in unkind times."* I'm Your Neighbor Books offers a list of   —books ...
03/30/2026

Author Sandra Cisneros once said, "We need books...in unkind times."*

I'm Your Neighbor Books offers a list of —books that help children, families & the broader community negotiate the trauma of ICE intimidation, detention & deportation.

recommends I WILL NOT BE SCARED by Jean-François Sénéchal and illustrated by Simone Rea (Milky Way Picture Books)

Know a family that needs these books? Contact

*After reading Ernesto Cisneros' EFRÉN DIVIDED/DIVIDIDO —a book about family separation.




03/24/2026
03/22/2026

may that cheeto turn to dust soon ♥

Digital illustration of a Latina squatting in front of a protest sign that reads, 'smex offenders can't live in government housing.'

03/22/2026

✨ People with disabilities should have the right to marry without losing their income, benefits, or health insurance.

⭐️ In many countries, including the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, people with disabilities are discouraged from getting married or are pushed to divorce in order to get or maintain their income, benefits, and health insurance.

📍 In the United States specifically, it's because benefits such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Medicaid are needs-based and focus on current assets and income. When someone marries someone not in those programs, their partner's assets and income are combined with theirs. It is because of the combined income that many married people with disabilities lose their SSI and Medicaid benefits. For people with disabilities who are already married, many have been forced to divorce and live separately in order to keep benefits that they need to survive.

⭐️ People with disabilities shouldn't be forced to choose between the benefits they need to survive and their partners. 🌙

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Digital illustration of a woman with brown skin and curly black hair. She is disabled and is sitting in a grey wheelchair looking at the viewer. The woman is wearing a cream color linen dress, pink and blue flower print go-go boots, pink and blue pom pom earrings. There's a text bubble that reads, ' people with disabilities STILL do not have marriage equality'

Eid Murbarak to our Muslim friends across the globe. These times are troubling, but may your celebration be steeped in f...
03/21/2026

Eid Murbarak to our Muslim friends across the globe. These times are troubling, but may your celebration be steeped in family, community and love.

This is a page from the gorgeous A GOLDEN EID by Hiba Noor Khan and illustrated by Singgih Cahyo Jadmiko. (Thank you to Noteds From an Islamic School Librarian for this look inside the book.)

Our hearts are with the Persian and Iranian community in Iran and across the globe as their beloved holiday of renewal &...
03/21/2026

Our hearts are with the Persian and Iranian community in Iran and across the globe as their beloved holiday of renewal & hope takes place in a time of great mourning & anxiety.

Explore a copy of the Celebrate by mother & daughter team Zohreh and Susie Ghahremani.

"I just want to see a free Iran, full of music and art and poems and all the beautiful forms of expression that Persians and Iranian people know is the true center of our culture. Not this regime. As people around the world know, we are not our governments and we all want the same things: to love and be loved. No tyrants and no dictators and NO WAR CRIMES. Here or there. From the streets of Minnesota to the streets of Tehran."
—Illustrator Susie Ghahremani

Chicago's Uptown Neighborhood was hit hard by ICE.McCutcheon STEAM Elementary School is raising $ for a   —a collection ...
03/14/2026

Chicago's Uptown Neighborhood was hit hard by ICE.

McCutcheon STEAM Elementary School is raising $ for a —a collection of Immigrant & New Generation K-8 books that will help heal the whole community.

Your donation will rebuild AND earn you a free sticker from I'm Your Neighbor Books.

GIVE link in the comments.




Thx a zillion to Magdalena Mora for allowing us to use this image from her picture book I WISH YOU KNEW/OJALA SUPIERAS a story about a family separated...

02/27/2026

Four federal judges have ordered ICE to release detainees after discovering the agency filed documents that were false or ignored a judge’s order.

Freeport Oyster Bar is stepping up for Maine’s   families & neighbors!On 3/7/26 from 12-4, any drinks,   or other menu i...
02/26/2026

Freeport Oyster Bar is stepping up for Maine’s families & neighbors!

On 3/7/26 from 12-4, any drinks, or other menu items will benefit the nonprofit I'm Your Neighbor Books.

*PLEASE JOIN US*
Freeport Oyster Bar
43 Main St, Freeport, ME
Saturday, 3/7/26
12-4 PM

All ages welcome to:
* Read impactful picture books
* Hear about the work of the award-winning nonprofit
* Choose from the delicious FOB menu
* Raise a glass of beer from
* Bid in a silent audition
* Follow a in the courtyard

I’m Your Neighbor Books supports the immigrant community in Maine and across the nation with story-based care packages for families impacted by ICE and by using children’s books featuring immigrant families to reduce anti-immigrant racism.

For every donation made to I’m Your Neighbor Books during the event, the nonprofit will give a book to Freeport Community Services youth programs.

01/29/2026

The surge of ICE activity across Maine over the last few weeks is deeply alarming. We know many of you are feeling the same mix of anxiety and anger that we are, while our staff is doing their parts as individuals, we also wanted to take a stand as a business.

This weekend (Saturday 1/31 and Sunday 2/1), Print is donating 20% of all in-store and online proceeds to the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP). If you’ve been looking for an excuse to pick up a new book, let this be it.

Don’t know where to start? We have a list on our website and in our bio of books focused on resisting I.C.E. and supporting immigrant rights. We’re always ready to give recommendations, whether you’re looking for books on activism or if you just need an escape from it all.

Stay strong, stay vigilant, and stay safe out there, friends.

“As Maine’s only state-wide immigration legal services organization, ILAP advances justice and equity for immigrants and their families through direct legal services, community education, and systemic advocacy.”

THANK YOU Representative Deqa Dhalac!With anti-immigrant racism surging, nonprofit I'm Your Neighbor Books needs your he...
12/14/2025

THANK YOU Representative Deqa Dhalac!

With anti-immigrant racism surging, nonprofit I'm Your Neighbor Books needs your help to reject racism—through reading.

DONATION link in comments.

You have heard the President attack the community and seen ICE’s actions in .

I'm Your Neighbor Books has placed 5,150 Somali picture books & graphic novels in communities nationwide—books that tell a different story.

No reader of these books would ever believe that the Somali community is “garbage.”

And, Somali readers only feel pride when books like WHEN STARS ARE SCATTERED are in their hands or in the hands of their classmates.

uses stories to build communities where immigrants are safe, valued & fully seen!

This nonprofit helps .

Address

80 Bell Street, Suite 7
Portland, ME
04103

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