The Experiences of Two Migrant Readers: Freedom, Restriction, and the Navigation of Adolescent Space

This article focuses on the experiences of Irina and Chloe, two adolescents who had recently migrated to Toronto at the time of the study in which they participated. Through reading discussion groups and semi-structured interviews, Irina and Chloe conceptualized place and identity within and beyond two contemporary young adult texts: Tim Wynne-Jones’s Blink and Caution and Clare Vanderpool’s Moon Over Manifest. Drawing on children’s literature criticism and cultural geography theory, I interpret the ways in which Chloe’s and Irina’s identities have been informed by migration as well as the ways in which mobility has shaped and constrained their familial and social relations. Through discourse analysis, I illustrate the ways in which place has informed their emerging adolescent identities. I offer a critical description of the moment in time when these texts, these readers, and I met as part of a reading transaction within a particular time and space.