A beautifully quiet guide to navigating absence.
A young immigrant processes her grandmother’s move back to China.
In the painterly art, Molly is shown wearing winter gear as she drags a suitcase in a moonlit snowy landscape. When her mother catches up to her, Molly agrees to return home but tearfully admits she misses her Nainai. “Molly’s grandmother has always been right next to Molly,” the gentle narration explains. We see a toddler-aged Molly and Nainai, portrayed with bright, softly blurred layers of colors in their apartment in China. Chen marks all the milestones the two shared. “She was here” when the family flew from China to Canada, their new home. “She was here” when Molly enjoyed the foods she loves best—jiaozi and baozi (an accompanying image depicts Nainai lovingly looking on). “She was here when Molly drifted into sleep” (we see the two cuddled up in bed reading a bedtime story). “But now she is not here.” Huang employs darker hues as the story reveals that Nainai had to return to China when her six-month visa expired. But Molly starts adjusting to Nainai’s absence, sending her a letter adorned with hearts. The next day the duo talk via video chat for the first time, and Nainai’s voice brings Molly comfort. Precise, repetitive stanzas and tenderly depicted scenes help young readers follow Molly’s emotional journey.
A beautifully quiet guide to navigating absence. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780889956889
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Red Deer Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
This multigenerational snuggle will encourage the sharing of old memories and the creation of new ones.
Hill and Bobbiesi send a humungous hug from grandmothers to their granddaughters everywhere.
Delicate cartoon art adds details to the rhyming text showing multigenerational commonalities. “You and I are alike in such wonderful ways. / You will see more and more as you grow” (as grandmother and granddaughter enjoy the backyard together); “I wobbled uncertainly just as you did / whenever I tried something new” (as a toddler takes first steps); “And if a bad dream woke me up in the night, / I snuggled up with my lovey too” (grandmother kisses granddaughter, who clutches a plush narwhal). Grandmother-granddaughter pairs share everyday joys like eating ice cream, dancing “in the rain,” and making “up silly games.” Although some activities skew stereotypically feminine (baking, yoga), a grandmother helps with a quintessential volcano experiment (this pair presents black, adding valuable STEM representation), another cheers on a young wheelchair athlete (both present Asian), and a third, wearing a hijab, accompanies her brown-skinned granddaughter on a peace march, as it is “important to speak out for what you believe.” The message of unconditional love is clear throughout: “When you need me, I’ll be there to listen and care. / There is nothing that keeps us apart.” The finished book will include “stationery…for a special letter from Grandma to you!”
This multigenerational snuggle will encourage the sharing of old memories and the creation of new ones. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0623-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy.
Robo-parents Diode and Lugnut present daughter Cathode with a new little brother—who requires, unfortunately, some assembly.
Arriving in pieces from some mechanistic version of Ikea, little Flange turns out to be a cute but complicated tyke who immediately falls apart…and then rockets uncontrollably about the room after an overconfident uncle tinkers with his basic design. As a squad of helpline techies and bevies of neighbors bearing sludge cake and like treats roll in, the cluttered and increasingly crowded scene deteriorates into madcap chaos—until at last Cath, with help from Roomba-like robodog Sprocket, stages an intervention by whisking the hapless new arrival off to a backyard workshop for a proper assembly and software update. “You’re such a good big sister!” warbles her frazzled mom. Wiesner’s robots display his characteristic clean lines and even hues but endearingly look like vaguely anthropomorphic piles of random jet-engine parts and old vacuum cleaners loosely connected by joints of armored cable. They roll hither and thither through neatly squared-off panels and pages in infectiously comical dismay. Even the end’s domestic tranquility lasts only until Cathode spots the little box buried in the bigger one’s packing material: “TWINS!” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 52% of actual size.)
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-544-98731-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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