GOODBYE, KOI

Father and child complete final moving preparations, which include parting with their pet fish.

Like this story’s young narrator, the koi are getting a new home, released into a park pond. “I wonder what they’ll think of it,” the child muses as they drive away. As Wong’s empathetic text echoes his protagonist’s caring ponderances, his gorgeous illustrations cleverly capture a different intertwined narrative, revealing the many other tasks necessary before the family’s departure—father and child donating old clothes, buying the youngster a winter coat, picking up fruit for an extended family gathering, and grabbing their suitcases at their old home filled with boxes awaiting transport. Saying goodbye to the now empty fishtank helps the pair realize “we’re ready”: “It’s our turn to see our new home.” In a poignant author’s note, complete with photographs, Wong informs readers that when he was 6, he and his family relocated from Hong Kong to Canada. He memorably sprinkles autobiographical details onto the pages: traditional park architecture, the car’s right-side driver’s seat, recurring Chinese characters, market scenes. Wong shares the book’s starting point—a vivid memory of his father netting the family’s koi, though he never discovered what became of them. To imagine their story, Wong diligently, and impressively, learned ancient Chinese brush painting techniques. All characters are cued East Asian until the final airplane interior scene.

A brilliant, sensitively wrought tale of potentially overwhelming change made manageable.