A beautiful and poignant tale of immigration fused with Tagalog myth.
A Pilipino mother recounts a bedtime story about gods and her own family mythology.
Speaking in free verse, Elsie, mother to young mixed-race girls Stella and Luna (their dad is White), weaves a moving and ethereal story about family, loss, pain, and hope. Beautifully steeped in Pilipino culture and cosmology, the story she tells is that of Mayari, the moon goddess, and how she came to make it her life’s work to reflect light. Her heartfelt narration brings the gods to life. Mayari and her siblings, Apolaki and Tala, believe they have humble beginnings but later learn their father is Bathala Maykapal, or God Creator. Forced to choose between Earth and Heaven, the siblings take only what they can carry and follow their father to Heaven despite their fears. Their fight to belong with the other gods mirrors Elsie’s other tale, that of her family’s tumultuous immigration to the United States from the Philippines during Ferdinand Marcos’ reign amid violent protests and rolling blackouts. Like Mayari, Elsie could bring only so much with her and was forced to leave behind more than her toys—like the yayas, or nannies, who cared for her and the neighborhood she grew up in. Woven together in captivating parallels, Elsie’s and Mayari’s stories (the former in black type and the latter in light blue) reflect the struggle and hardship many immigrants face in search of a new life. Sometimes raw and traumatic, other times hopeful and inspiring, Elsie’s bedtime story rings true, encapsulating the heart of Pilipino culture.
A beautiful and poignant tale of immigration fused with Tagalog myth. (glossary, songs, afterword) (Verse fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: March 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-11220-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
PERSPECTIVES
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious.
If you made a recording to be heard by the aliens who found the iPod, what would you record?
For 11-year-old Alex Petroski, it's easy. He records everything. He records the story of how he travels to New Mexico to a rocket festival with his dog, Carl Sagan, and his rocket. He records finding out that a man with the same name and birthday as his dead father has an address in Las Vegas. He records eating at Johnny Rockets for the first time with his new friends, who are giving him a ride to find his dead father (who might not be dead!), and losing Carl Sagan in the wilds of Las Vegas, and discovering he has a half sister. He even records his own awful accident. Cheng delivers a sweet, soulful debut novel with a brilliant, refreshing structure. His characters manage to come alive through the “transcript” of Alex’s iPod recording, an odd medium that sounds like it would be confusing but really works. Taking inspiration from the Voyager Golden Record released to space in 1977, Alex, who explains he has “light brown skin,” records all the important moments of a journey that takes him from a family of two to a family of plenty.
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-18637-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high...
Two parallel stories, one of a Syrian boy from Aleppo fleeing war, and another of a white American boy, son of a NATO contractor, dealing with the challenges of growing up, intersect at a house in Brussels.
Ahmed lost his father while crossing the Mediterranean. Alone and broke in Europe, he takes things into his own hands to get to safety but ends up having to hide in the basement of a residential house. After months of hiding, he is discovered by Max, a boy of similar age and parallel high integrity and courage, who is experiencing his own set of troubles learning a new language, moving to a new country, and being teased at school. In an unexpected turn of events, the two boys and their new friends Farah, a Muslim Belgian girl, and Oscar, a white Belgian boy, successfully scheme for Ahmed to go to school while he remains in hiding the rest of the time. What is at stake for Ahmed is immense, and so is the risk to everyone involved. Marsh invites art and history to motivate her protagonists, drawing parallels to gentiles who protected Jews fleeing Nazi terror and citing present-day political news. This well-crafted and suspenseful novel touches on the topics of refugees and immigrant integration, terrorism, Islam, Islamophobia, and the Syrian war with sensitivity and grace.
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high values in the face of grave risk and succeed in drawing goodwill from others. (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-30757-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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