What《Harbor Me》taught us

書名：Harbor Me

作者：Jacqueline Woodson

《Harbor Me》 閱讀心得

Would you be a harbor for someone who needs it ? In this book, at first ,the six special kids were unfamiliar with each other, not daring to pour their heart out to one another, but then they started to trust, encourage and support each other, and cheered for their partners who were tormented by separation of loved ones, culture conflict and racial barriers. Finally, the six children became harbors for each other, and their friendship gave them courage to keep going.

 This book began with six children being sent to a room for a weekly chat. There were not any adults in the ARTT room (a room to talk).Only the six kids were there. Their talk involved deportation, immigration, incarcerated parents, and the black lives matter movement. Among them, Esteban, whose father was deported, was forced to separate from his family. In the beginning, Esteban was so worried, heartbroken, and despaired, but when he came to the ARTT room, talking about this matter, the other kids all constantly comforted him, trying to let him be optimistic, and shared the problem with him. This made him gradually recover, and the smile appeared on his face again. The kids accompanied Esteban to go through the grieving event, and helped him get past the difficult time. The kids' sincere care made them closer to each other, and built up the friendship between them.

These children not only had strong empathy but also had staunch spirits. The main character was Haley. Her mother died and her father was in prison because of a car accident. She was afraid of facing it and talking about this to the other kids at first, but finally, She broke through psychological barriers, facing the fact, and poured this matter out to them. Also because of this, she became stronger than before. When the time she needed to face her father came, she had been ready, had already forgiven him and then rushed into his arms. Facing such a situation takes a large amount of courage, and Haley was surely strong in heart and mind. Although it was not easy to accomplish, Haley was successful to get over difficulty and turned braver with her good friends together.

 The other kids in this room, such as Amari, a boy who felt unfair about racial discrimination; Tiago, who was unable to adapt in the region because of different languages; Ashton, who suffered violent treatment due to the hatred between races, also dealt with the problems strongly, without being defeated by the dilemma, and lived their lives bravely. When the six children were together, they gathered strength, got more courage from each other, and could weather any storm. Like Ailanthus tree, tree of heaven, which was mentioned in this books, it could grow everywhere and keep growing. Even when things got very hard for everyone, the tree kept growing.

 The friendship among the six children in the ARTT room and the solidarity and mutual assistance between them really makes me feel touched. They did not care about their ethnic and racial differences, and did not mind whether they are wealthy or poor, they just care about whether the friends around them had any annoyances, trying to do their best to help them. These valuable empathy and fortitude are worth learning, and we should try our best to be a harbor for someone who needs it as well.