A comprehensive guide to the homestay experience, brimming with honesty, compassion, and plenty of easy-to-follow strategies.
A homestay expert explores the pros and cons of opening one’s home to international students.
The homestay program—in which students from around the world temporarily live with a family in another country—sees thousands of participants every year, and Wilson shares the work it takes to be a successful host parent. Personal stories from various homestay families, highlighting the meaningful connections that can develop between all those involved, are interspersed with practical tips that can help make the stay a successful one. Tips include being aware of physical cultural differences (e.g., eye contact is considered rude in some cultures), as well as more pragmatic distinctions (toilet paper is thrown in the trash instead of flushed in many Asian and Southern European countries). Wilson also addresses the emotional work that it takes to be a successful host, such as choosing “willful awareness”—a type of self-reflection that includes “staying with hard topics, listening when you’d rather leave, looking toward rather than away, and acknowledging your role in the system that keeps people marginalized: this is where the learning happens” (here, Wilson paraphrases the work of psychologist Dolly Chugh, whom she quotes throughout). Blending real stories with relevant suggestions make this book a fascinating read, despite some points not quite landing. For example, a German student whose host mother became angry when the student stayed out late without calling explains that she’s used to having freedom at home. Wilson mentions that “living with an adult who cared about her well-being” was a “new experience” for this girl—indicating that having more lax rules in Germany means her parents weren’t caring, as opposed to it being a cultural difference. This is a rare slip, however. Overall, Wilson’s practical handbook contains everything a potential host family might need, while also celebrating the joy that comes with welcoming strangers into one’s home.
A comprehensive guide to the homestay experience, brimming with honesty, compassion, and plenty of easy-to-follow strategies.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781774584989
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Page Two
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.
An experimental, illustrated essay collection that questions neurotypical definitions of what is normal.
From a young age, writer and comedian Myers has been different. In addition to coping with obsessive compulsive disorder and panic attacks, she struggled to read basic social cues. During a round of seven minutes in heaven—a game in which two players spend seven minutes in a closet and are expected to kiss—Myers misread the romantic advances of her best friend and longtime crush, Marley. In Paris, she accidentally invited a sex worker to join her friends for “board games and beer,” thinking he was simply a random stranger who happened to be hitting on her. In community college, a stranger’s request for a pen spiraled her into a panic attack but resulted in a tentative friendship. When the author moved to Australia, she began taking notes on her colleagues in an effort to know them better. As the author says to her co-worker, Tabitha, “there are unspoken social contracts within a workplace that—by some miracle—everyone else already understands, and I don’t….When things Go Without Saying, they Never Get Said, and sometimes people need you to Say Those Things So They Understand What The Hell Is Going On.” At its best, Myers’ prose is vulnerable and humorous, capturing characterization in small but consequential life moments, and her illustrations beautifully complement the text. Unfortunately, the author’s tendency toward unnecessary capitalization and experimental forms is often unsuccessful, breaking the book’s otherwise steady rhythm.
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063381308
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
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