The Newcomers: Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in an American Classroom (2017) documents the lives of 22 immigrant teenagers during the school year as they land at South High School in Denver, Colorado, in an English Language Acquisition class created specifically for them.

Read this in-depth interview with Thorpe, which talks about the 14 different languages in the classroom, close relationships built with interpreters (previously refugees), and traveling to a refugee settlement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“In my understanding of Americans, we are typically very generous, but I thinkwhen it comes to immigration and refugee resettlement, there is rhetoric that stirs up fear and anxiety and causes us to exhibit a different side of ourselves. If the average person […] was to spend a year inside this classroom and get to know these students and families, they would have a similar awakening as I did, recognizing how much we have and how easy it is to be more generous.” 

—Helen Thorpe on her award-winning book, The Newcomers