MY DAD IS A SOLDIER

A Chinese child visits their father at a military base.

The young narrator tells us, “My dad is a soldier.” While the text is not explicit about setting, other than a mention of the Yangtze River, gentle yet vibrant watercolors suggest that the father is a first lieutenant in the People’s Liberation Army. The child misses their father—more than anything, the protagonist wishes he could pick them up from school. The story follows the child and their mother as they travel by rail to a faraway military base for an extended visit spanning three seasons. There are brief references to training and target practice, but the story is primarily concerned with noncombat activities like cooking steamed buns, fighting floods, hiking, and reading letters from home. Zhao confronts the challenges of deployment directly, tempering the child’s joy at reunification with fear of a face made unfamiliar by time apart, worries about the father’s physical safety, and sorrow when the family must part again. In simple prose, this relatable story captures the pain of separation from a parent and will draw in young readers. All characters are Chinese, but a range of skin tones is depicted. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A bittersweet story about the emotional cost of deployment.