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Arts & Entertainment

Local Author Explores Immigration and Suburban Assimilation

Marina Budhos used Maplewood as inspiration for her new young adult novel about clashing worlds in middle school.

Herve Heriveaux  and his two young daughters biked to Words Bookstore on a hot and muggy Sunday afternoon to listen to  local author Marina Budhos read from her new young adult novel, "Tell Us We're Home."

"The girls were interested," he explained, "And it's right in town. Why not have a signed copy for Mother's Day?"

Not only was the reading located in Words bookstore in Maplewood;  the story itself takes place in the fictional town of Meadowbrook, which bears a striking resemblance to 07040. Words was an appropriate New Jersey launch site for the book, and in spite of the sticky weather, the bookstore filled with readers eager to listen to the author read and discuss her work.  There may have been a nod and a wink upon hearing scenes of middle school ultimate frisbee players, astro turf, and a gabled town hall, but there was also intense listening as the point of view unfolded.

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Three immigrant girls, the daughters of maids and nannies, live in the less well-to-do part of town. Yet they share classes with the kids whose clothing their mothers wash. Imagine a view of  middle school through this lens and you get a sense of why these girls become friends and how their story of finding a sense of home when you're an outsider is unique and surprising.

After the reading, an audience member wondered about how Budhos got into the heads of her characters to create such a vivid and believable world. Budhos, also a journalist, explained that she used her interviews skills, her imagination, and her observation. She had interviewed nannies in New York City parks and sat in on classes at Maplewood Middle School.

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Both of Heriveaux's daughters asked questions. How hard was it to write the book and what was your inspiration? Budhos explained that she had to rewrite the book many times, and that the characters and their social circumstance interested her.

"There I was, as a Mom who had hired a nanny with the same background as my father—Indo-Caribbean. Sometimes people confused my nanny as the Mom, and me as the Nanny," she said.

"I considered myself an immigrant to New Jersey and to the suburbs. The book grew out of my own adjustment." Budhos said she was doing research about mothers and nannies for another project, "and I got waylaid thinking about the children of the nannies.".

Now, "Tell Us We're Home" is the story of these often unheard voices.

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