Offers deep emotional insight into the refugee experience.
A 6-year-old Hmong child grows up in a refugee camp, unaware of the outside world.
“I live in a cage but I don’t know it,” states the unnamed protagonist, who was born here. The child’s deftly paced narration describes surroundings—“bald hills and dry fields of flying dirt”—shared with “grandmothers with no teeth” and “mothers with babies on their backs.” Armed guards patrol the area smoking cigarettes at night, “moving like fireflies around the edges of our world.” Despite the bleak environment, children still use their imaginations to travel beyond their borders “to a place far from here!” These moments of joy break up harsh realities such as arduous living conditions and people fleeing war. Vue’s simple cartoons are textured with splatters of colors and lines set against largely white backdrops; with honesty and sensitivity, the artwork portrays the protagonist’s struggle to understand the concept of war while observing the pain endured by adults in the camp. Moments of lightness temper the heaviness, especially when an auntie insists that the young narrator isn’t “a child of poverty, war or despair”; the child is “hope being born.” When the family finally leaves the camp, the auntie whispers, “Your wings have arrived.” In an author’s note, Yang discusses how, after fleeing Laos, her own family lived in Thailand’s Ban Vinai Refugee Camp, where she was born.
Offers deep emotional insight into the refugee experience. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 28, 2024
ISBN: 9781984816368
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted...
Reinvention is the name of the game for two blobs of clay.
A blue-eyed gray blob and a brown-eyed brown blob sit side by side, unsure as to what’s going to happen next. The gray anticipates an adventure, while the brown appears apprehensive. A pair of hands descends, and soon, amid a flurry of squishing and prodding and poking and sculpting, a handsome gray wolf and a stately brown owl emerge. The hands disappear, leaving the friends to their own devices. The owl is pleased, but the wolf convinces it that the best is yet to come. An ear pulled here and an extra eye placed there, and before you can shake a carving stick, a spurt of frenetic self-exploration—expressed as a tangled black scribble—reveals a succession of smug hybrid beasts. After all, the opportunity to become a “pig-e-phant” doesn’t come around every day. But the sound of approaching footsteps panics the pair of Picassos. How are they going to “fix [them]selves” on time? Soon a hippopotamus and peacock are staring bug-eyed at a returning pair of astonished hands. The creative naiveté of the “clay mates” is perfectly captured by Petty’s feisty, spot-on dialogue: “This was your idea…and it was a BAD one.” Eldridge’s endearing sculpted images are photographed against the stark white background of an artist’s work table to great effect.
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted fun of their own . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-30311-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre.
Ice princess Lina must navigate family and school in this early chapter read.
The family picnic is today. This is not a typical gathering, since Lina’s maternal relatives are a royal family of Windtamers who have power over the weather and live in castles floating on clouds. Lina herself is mixed race, with black hair and a tan complexion like her Asian-presenting mother’s; her Groundling father appears to be a white human. While making a grand entrance at the castle of her grandfather, the North Wind, she fails to successfully ride a gust of wind and crashes in front of her entire family. This prompts her stern grandfather to ask that Lina move in with him so he can teach her to control her powers. Desperate to avoid this, Lina and her friend Claudia, who is black, get Lina accepted at the Hilltop Science and Arts Academy. Lina’s parents allow her to go as long as she does lessons with grandpa on Saturdays. However, fitting in at a Groundling school is rough, especially when your powers start freak winter storms! With the story unfurling in diary format, bright-pink–highlighted grayscale illustrations help move the plot along. There are slight gaps in the storytelling and the pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lina is full of spunk and promotes self-acceptance.
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35393-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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