On her first day at Rosewood Elementary, Farida knew only a few English words. When the teacher spoke, the sentences rushed past her like cars on a freeway. Farida held her pencil tightly and stared at her desk.

At recess, a boy named Tomás sat down next to her with a notebook. He did not say much. Instead, he drew a quick picture of a ball and wrote the word ball under it. Then he pointed to the playground.

Every day that week, Tomás drew something new: a slide, a lunch tray, a bus. Farida copied each word into her own notebook and whispered it twice.

On Friday, Farida took the notebook from Tomás and drew a small sun. Under it she wrote a word in Dari, the language her family speaks at home. "Aftab," she said slowly. Tomás tried to say it and got it wrong. Farida laughed for the first time all week, and then she said it again so he could try.