A rousing affirmation of Chinese American history, identity, and voice.
A Chinese American child finds power in family history.
As Mei’s family strolls through Washington, D.C., to the city’s Chinatown, Mom and the youngster recount the story of Mei’s great-great-grandfather Samuel Moy Gong, the second American-born Chinese person in D.C. Each year, they stop by important sites as they remember him—the bench commemorating Samuel, the house where he was born. But this time, when they arrive at the Friendship Archway to take their customary photo, a huge crowd has gathered for a rally against Asian hate. Taking the stage, Mom invites Mei to share their family’s story. Although Mei’s voice is shaky at first, it grows with encouragement from Mom, Dad, and even Mei’s baby brother. As Mei concludes, “We are American, too,” the crowd heartily echoes those moving words. Drawing from her own family history, Chase deftly tells a story about community, protest, and the importance of speaking up. Chen’s softly impressionistic digital illustrations alternate gray and sepia tones with more vibrant splashes of color, blurring the lines between past and present and making it clear that history is always with us. The closing spread pairs Mei’s final potent words (“This is our home. My great-great-grandfather. My family. And me”) with a warm depiction of the family and their ancestors sharing a bench. Mei’s father presents white, suggesting that Mei is biracial.
A rousing affirmation of Chinese American history, identity, and voice. (author’s note, family tree) (Picture book. 4-8.)Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9780374390211
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As insubstantial as hot air.
A diverse cast of children first makes a fleet of hot air balloons and then takes to the sky in them.
Lifestyle maven Gaines uses this activity as a platform to celebrate diversity in learning and working styles. Some people like to work together; others prefer a solo process. Some take pains to plan extensively; others know exactly what they want and jump right in. Some apply science; others demonstrate artistic prowess. But “see how beautiful it can be when / our differences share the same sky?” Double-page spreads leading up to this moment of liftoff are laid out such that rhyming abcb quatrains typically contain one or two opposing concepts: “Some of us are teachers / and share what we know. / But all of us are learners. / Together is how we grow!” In the accompanying illustration, a bespectacled, Asian-presenting child at a blackboard lectures the other children on “balloon safety.” Gaines’ text has the ring of sincerity, but the sentiment is hardly an original one, and her verse frequently sacrifices scansion for rhyme. Sometimes it abandons both: “We may not look / or work or think the same, / but we all have an / important part to play.” Swaney’s delicate, pastel-hued illustrations do little to expand on the text, but they are pretty. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.2-by-18.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 70.7% of actual size.)
As insubstantial as hot air. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4003-1423-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tommy Nelson
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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