A welcome modern tale of immigration featuring a Thai protagonist.
A Thai boy finds comfort in a Buddhist tale while adjusting to life in Chicago.
Young “Krit love[s] his home” in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He and his dog, Mu, run alongside temple stairs and duck “under dragon fruit carts in the market, past papaya and longans and red rambutans.” While celebrating the festival of lights, Krit releases his banana-leaf boat lighted with a candle on the river with his single wish: “Let nothing change.” Unfortunately, that night, his mother informs him the family is moving to Chicago to help with family business. The digitally painted grayscale city shrouded in snow proves a jarring change from the bright sunbathed colors of Thailand. Krit attempts to re-create familiar scenes, walking alongside the icy river and visiting markets only to be scolded by guards and staff for bringing his dog. Cold and dispirited, that night Krit requests a story from his mother, who tells a cryptic tale of Buddha's finding a place to build his temple. Straightforward narration reveals the next day is a more fruitful one when Krit meets Dahlia, a white girl playing with a toy boat in the river. With Dahlia’s friendship, Krit looks at Chicago with new eyes, realizing the moral of his mother’s story and the true meaning of home. Woo builds on simple shapes and rounded edges to provide bright characters with charming backdrops.
A welcome modern tale of immigration featuring a Thai protagonist. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-61180-775-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bala Kids/Shambhala
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books.
Curious about the Big Wide World outside his Sasquatch community, Hugo makes a friend who is of it.
Sasquatch Hugo’s bedroom is inside a cave and possesses the charming feature of a small stream running through it that he can sail his little toy boat on. It’s cool, but he yearns to see the Big Wide World. When he asks his smart friend Gigi if a Sasquatch might become a sailor, she says it’s possible but would be difficult—the primary rule of their people is to not be seen by Humans. Then, in everyone’s favorite Hide and Go Sneak class, which is held outside, a Human appears; Hugo laughs at the sight, drawing Human attention in a taboo-breaking mistake. Shortly after, Hugo’s toy boat floats into the cave with a Human toy—soon, it’s facilitating a pen-pal–type relationship that’s derailed when Hugo confesses to being a Sasquatch and Human Boone, a budding cryptozoologist, doesn’t believe him. How Hugo and Boone resolve this misapprehension and become friends in a joint search for the Ogopogo concludes this series opener. Potter keeps the third-person narrative tightly focused on Hugo’s perspective, and the details she uses to flesh out the Sasquatch world are delightfully playful. Sala’s drawings depict a homey Sasquatch cavern community, Boone as a freckled, white boy, and Hugo as a hairily benevolent behemoth.
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books. (final art unseen) (Fantasy. 5-9)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2859-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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