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Un mapa hacia el mundo/ A Map into the World
A story of a young girl seeking beauty and connection in a busy world.
As the seasons change, so too does a young Hmong girl's world. She moves into a new home with her family and encounters both birth and death. As this curious girl explores life inside her house and beyond, she collects bits of the natural world. But who are her treasures for?
As the seasons change, so too does a young Hmong girl's world. She moves into a new home with her family and encounters both birth and death. As this curious girl explores life inside her house and beyond, she collects bits of the natural world. But who are her treasures for?
40 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2019
46 people are currently reading
934 people want to read
About the author
Kao Kalia Yang
31 books539 followersKao Kalia Yang is an award-winning Hmong-American writer. She is a graduate of Carleton College and Columbia University. Yang is the author of the memoirs The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir and The Song Poet. The Latehomecomer is the first Asian American authored and centered book to be added to the roster of the Literature to Life Program and a National Endowment for the Arts Big Read title. The Song Poet has been commissioned as a youth opera by the Minnesota Opera and will premiere in the spring of 2021. Yang is also the author of the children’s books, A Map Into the World, The Shared Room, and The Most Beautiful Thing. She co-edited the ground-breaking collection What God is Honored Here?: Writings on Miscarriage and Infant Loss By and For Indigenous Women and Women of Color. Her newest title is Somewhere in the Unknown World, a collective memoir of refugee experiences. Yang’s literary nonfiction work has been recognized by the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Chautauqua Prize, the PEN USA literary awards, the Dayton’s Literary Peace Prize, and garnered three Minnesota Book awards. Her children’s books have been listed as an American Library Association Notable Book, a Zolotow Honor, a Kirkus Best Book of the Year, a finalist for the Midwest Independent Bookseller’s Award, and winner of a Minnesota Book Award in Children’s Literature. Kao Kalia Yang is a recipient of the International Institute of Minnesota’s Olga Zoltai Award for her community leadership and service to New Americans and the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts’ 2019 Sally Award for Social Impact.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 258 reviews
October 10, 2019
That synopsis is a bit misleading. I thought there would be a literal collection of things. Instead, those things simply provide inspiration for Paj Ntaub's gift to an elderly friend.
The story is a little slice of life. A family moves in across the street from an old couple. Soon, the family grows as twin baby boys are added... and the couple becomes one person as Ruth dies. Paj Ntaub feels she wants to do something to help Bob, so she gets out her sidewalk chalk and has her mother ask Bob's permission to draw on his driveway. The result is a sweet gift from a child to an old man.
The illustrations certainly work with the story, although I'm not a personal fan of the style. The writing is solid. I enjoyed watching the changing of the seasons, and seeing Paj Ntaub's "collection" grow.
Overall, this is a sweet picture book about an intergenerational gesture of kindness and friendship. It does have some sad elements, but they are handled gently and respectfully, making this a lovely book for children of all ages.
Quotable moment:
The story is a little slice of life. A family moves in across the street from an old couple. Soon, the family grows as twin baby boys are added... and the couple becomes one person as Ruth dies. Paj Ntaub feels she wants to do something to help Bob, so she gets out her sidewalk chalk and has her mother ask Bob's permission to draw on his driveway. The result is a sweet gift from a child to an old man.
The illustrations certainly work with the story, although I'm not a personal fan of the style. The writing is solid. I enjoyed watching the changing of the seasons, and seeing Paj Ntaub's "collection" grow.
Overall, this is a sweet picture book about an intergenerational gesture of kindness and friendship. It does have some sad elements, but they are handled gently and respectfully, making this a lovely book for children of all ages.
Quotable moment:
October 11, 2022
A simple story that shows the beauty of human connection, love and kindness.
October 18, 2019
I loved this gentle and deceptively simple story. It illustrates the circle of life through the seasons mixed with small details about new twin siblings and elderly neighbors. The illustrations are simply beautiful. I highly recommend this book.
This unbiased review is based upon a complimentary copy provided by the publisher.
This unbiased review is based upon a complimentary copy provided by the publisher.
December 23, 2024
This one hits directly in the heart. Beautiful artwork to go with a story more people should embrace. Too many grumpy old people choosing cynicism and solitude as the path of least resistance.
October 29, 2020
A picture book about the circle of life. A new home, new siblings and the passing away of an elderly neighbor are all part of this picture book debut by talented author Kao Kalia Yang.
October 18, 2019
"Lost is a place on the map."
These were words spoken to a National Writing project group by Commonwealth of Kentucky Poet, George Ella Lyon, in response to a comment that one was stuck in and on a piece of writing.
I was that writer.
Lost is a place on the map. As as Kao Kalia Yang demonstrates in A MAP INTO THE WORLD, loss, too, is a place on the map.
The dust jacket and case present in soft yellows and greens, natural tones for the themes that will be expressed in the book. The book presents as a capture of a season within a season and depicts a young Hmong American girl that readers will come to know at Paj Ntaub (a Hmong term describing a movement across time and the name of a girl ((our main character)). From the cover art to the peritext on the copyright page A MAP INTO THE WORLD becomes a gatefold story from its very beginnings in orienting the reader, young and old to the terms that will be used with the story to come.
The main character is the narrator of the story who weaves the story through a reporting of both season and surroundings. . .and the siblings to come. We meet our family as they are just moving into a new house. There is evidence of season in the text that hints at a garden with tomatoes and green beans and watermelon "as round as my mother's belly." A MAP INTO THE WORLD seems to begin a sense of the natural elements of life (within seasons) from the first page.
That Tais Tais kneels down to touch the dirt in a single sentence is carrying this since of soil and seasons and siblings and sensitivity into the story.
"The green house became our house." With the spare text offered by the picture book format, the author demonstrates how to move in time and space from freshness to settling into a home. Our main character and Tais Tais pin up a special story cloth on their wall. This is a look into the past that invites a look across the yard when Paj Ntaub sees an "old man and woman through the window." This little paragraph above the depiction of a couple we will come to know as Bob and Ruth is a mentor text in sentence variety and alliteration making A MAP INTO THE WORLD a mentor text for the writing classroom.
Paj Ntaub recognizes that Bob and Ruth look "older" than Tais Tais which is a quick little window into the progression of age inviting classroom teachers to share and to talk about those who are older than us through a lens of multi-generational insights and interactions.
Again, Kao Kalia Yang offers subtle shifts in season with Paj Ntaub and Tais Tais picking tomatoes and beans and checking on watermelon. We might talk about the fact that these were presumably planted "in season" before the arrival of Paj Ntaub's family which invites conversations around seasons and what we leave behind in this earth as we move on. As a flower gardener I appreciate this quiet little time jump that brings into the story Paj Ntaub's twin baby brothers.
The approach of fall brings descriptions of gingko leaves turning "yellow like apricots. " All age levels. This is a writing workshop invitation that invites the senses of food recognition, sight, smells, and possibly tastes. We have simile here that presents a model for students to try in their own writing. A MAP INTO THE WORLD shows its potential once again to be gatefold title inviting classroom teachers to go into the back list to connect classic picture books like Leo Buscaglia's THE FALL OF FREDDIE THE LEAF.
The depiction of Bob and Ruth here show Bob raking while Ruth watches the activity. Paj Ntaub wants to bring a leaf into the house to show her siblings, but she is told that the babies are too young to touch these leaves. This might not work as a reference for younger readers, but classroom teachers might consider how these consultations with the mother that repeat in regard to what the babies can and cannot do is really a subtle suggestion of Paj Ntaub's not being too small to see and to process the seasons changing around her. Kao Kalia Yang inserts this so subtly into the text that I wanted to point this out as a talking point for classroom teachers to consider when contemplating whether or not an audience is too young to consider and to talk through stories with loss as subject and theme.
The loss of a neighbor is handled with the same subtle shifts in scenes and seasons and situates the loss during the winter months when the text slows down and illustrator's depictions bring the reader winter through the same windows through which Paj Ntaub receives the warmth and color of seasons passed and promised to come again.
When spring comes, Paj Ntaub finds the "first worm of spring," the first turning and tilling of the dirt into which Tais Tais will add green onions to the plants/vegetables already growing. That Paj Ntaub picks lilacs from a shrub to share with her brothers is a nod to classic Whitman poetry (go ahead and take the bridge; extend that ladder to older readers in the room).
The end of the book shows Paj Ntaub demonstrating through her art a deep sense of sensitivity and empathy toward her neighbor, Bob, a man that she has "lost" in the winter season as winter is often wont to create distances in the snow not nearly as long as those eventually closed in the green of spring.
No spoilers for this book other than this book is one about experiencing loss. And how we help one another to be found again. Or as Ram Dass would write, "We're all here to walk each other home." Paj Ntaub offers the one condolence she can offer at her young age. And she offers this in the earnest of youth to the wisdom and receptiveness that comes of age.
I want to present A MAP INTO THE WORLD to classroom teachers as a natural extension to the activities created and codified by master/mentor poet, Georgia Heard, in her book HEART MAPS. Kao Kalia Yang, probably without knowing about Heard's book has created a natural companion to the text.
In these "heart maps," writers of all ages are able to stay in the process of creating their story before writing their story. These graphic organizers" are maps "into their worlds" that help us when they are "lost" to the process of writing. These are the same maps that guide us to write. . .and to light.
Lost is a place on the map. And on that map we can find ourselves on our way into the world. Many times, we pick up a friend along the way.
In BEAUTY IS EMBARRASSING, a documentary of which he is the subject, artist Wayne White exclaims of the field in which he is standing, "It's so beautiful, it hurts my feelings."
This is what Kao Kalia Yang's A MAP INTO THE WORLD is for me. A book so beautiful. . .it hurts my feelings. What hurts my feelings the most is probably the fact that many young readers will not see this mentor text in community relationships and empathy because it will not appear at the big box stores to sit alongside the ubiquitous mass market offerings to young readers.
For those of us who share picture books at the secondary level, this is where our work really begins. We cannot bridge all of the gaps of quality picture books and illustrated texts our readers might have missed, but we can recognize the books that create natural bridges to, into, across, over, and through. . .these "reading ladders" described by Dr. Teri Lesesne (Professor Nana) in her book for educators of the same title (READING LADDERS).
As a teacher who reads Mitch Albom's TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE with its vignettes into other cultures and how they describe their view of life and of death, A MAP INTO THE WORLD would fit wonderfully well as a read-aloud, read-along share in the room.
This book is a debut picture book offering from Kao Kalia Yang, a Hmong American. The illustrator, Seo Kim, is also sharing her first picture book published in America which is an invitation for classroom teachers to add to their classroom library collections more voices presenting multicultural subject matter from within that culture and that cultural expression. The words and the images come together in this type of presentation that will make the reader feel as though they are part of something new and uniquely-special in the reading and sharing of this book with students of all ages.
I received a digital copy of this book and I purchased a copy from my classroom, Room 407 at Silver Creek High School.
These were words spoken to a National Writing project group by Commonwealth of Kentucky Poet, George Ella Lyon, in response to a comment that one was stuck in and on a piece of writing.
I was that writer.
Lost is a place on the map. As as Kao Kalia Yang demonstrates in A MAP INTO THE WORLD, loss, too, is a place on the map.
The dust jacket and case present in soft yellows and greens, natural tones for the themes that will be expressed in the book. The book presents as a capture of a season within a season and depicts a young Hmong American girl that readers will come to know at Paj Ntaub (a Hmong term describing a movement across time and the name of a girl ((our main character)). From the cover art to the peritext on the copyright page A MAP INTO THE WORLD becomes a gatefold story from its very beginnings in orienting the reader, young and old to the terms that will be used with the story to come.
The main character is the narrator of the story who weaves the story through a reporting of both season and surroundings. . .and the siblings to come. We meet our family as they are just moving into a new house. There is evidence of season in the text that hints at a garden with tomatoes and green beans and watermelon "as round as my mother's belly." A MAP INTO THE WORLD seems to begin a sense of the natural elements of life (within seasons) from the first page.
That Tais Tais kneels down to touch the dirt in a single sentence is carrying this since of soil and seasons and siblings and sensitivity into the story.
"The green house became our house." With the spare text offered by the picture book format, the author demonstrates how to move in time and space from freshness to settling into a home. Our main character and Tais Tais pin up a special story cloth on their wall. This is a look into the past that invites a look across the yard when Paj Ntaub sees an "old man and woman through the window." This little paragraph above the depiction of a couple we will come to know as Bob and Ruth is a mentor text in sentence variety and alliteration making A MAP INTO THE WORLD a mentor text for the writing classroom.
Paj Ntaub recognizes that Bob and Ruth look "older" than Tais Tais which is a quick little window into the progression of age inviting classroom teachers to share and to talk about those who are older than us through a lens of multi-generational insights and interactions.
Again, Kao Kalia Yang offers subtle shifts in season with Paj Ntaub and Tais Tais picking tomatoes and beans and checking on watermelon. We might talk about the fact that these were presumably planted "in season" before the arrival of Paj Ntaub's family which invites conversations around seasons and what we leave behind in this earth as we move on. As a flower gardener I appreciate this quiet little time jump that brings into the story Paj Ntaub's twin baby brothers.
The approach of fall brings descriptions of gingko leaves turning "yellow like apricots. " All age levels. This is a writing workshop invitation that invites the senses of food recognition, sight, smells, and possibly tastes. We have simile here that presents a model for students to try in their own writing. A MAP INTO THE WORLD shows its potential once again to be gatefold title inviting classroom teachers to go into the back list to connect classic picture books like Leo Buscaglia's THE FALL OF FREDDIE THE LEAF.
The depiction of Bob and Ruth here show Bob raking while Ruth watches the activity. Paj Ntaub wants to bring a leaf into the house to show her siblings, but she is told that the babies are too young to touch these leaves. This might not work as a reference for younger readers, but classroom teachers might consider how these consultations with the mother that repeat in regard to what the babies can and cannot do is really a subtle suggestion of Paj Ntaub's not being too small to see and to process the seasons changing around her. Kao Kalia Yang inserts this so subtly into the text that I wanted to point this out as a talking point for classroom teachers to consider when contemplating whether or not an audience is too young to consider and to talk through stories with loss as subject and theme.
The loss of a neighbor is handled with the same subtle shifts in scenes and seasons and situates the loss during the winter months when the text slows down and illustrator's depictions bring the reader winter through the same windows through which Paj Ntaub receives the warmth and color of seasons passed and promised to come again.
When spring comes, Paj Ntaub finds the "first worm of spring," the first turning and tilling of the dirt into which Tais Tais will add green onions to the plants/vegetables already growing. That Paj Ntaub picks lilacs from a shrub to share with her brothers is a nod to classic Whitman poetry (go ahead and take the bridge; extend that ladder to older readers in the room).
The end of the book shows Paj Ntaub demonstrating through her art a deep sense of sensitivity and empathy toward her neighbor, Bob, a man that she has "lost" in the winter season as winter is often wont to create distances in the snow not nearly as long as those eventually closed in the green of spring.
No spoilers for this book other than this book is one about experiencing loss. And how we help one another to be found again. Or as Ram Dass would write, "We're all here to walk each other home." Paj Ntaub offers the one condolence she can offer at her young age. And she offers this in the earnest of youth to the wisdom and receptiveness that comes of age.
I want to present A MAP INTO THE WORLD to classroom teachers as a natural extension to the activities created and codified by master/mentor poet, Georgia Heard, in her book HEART MAPS. Kao Kalia Yang, probably without knowing about Heard's book has created a natural companion to the text.
In these "heart maps," writers of all ages are able to stay in the process of creating their story before writing their story. These graphic organizers" are maps "into their worlds" that help us when they are "lost" to the process of writing. These are the same maps that guide us to write. . .and to light.
Lost is a place on the map. And on that map we can find ourselves on our way into the world. Many times, we pick up a friend along the way.
In BEAUTY IS EMBARRASSING, a documentary of which he is the subject, artist Wayne White exclaims of the field in which he is standing, "It's so beautiful, it hurts my feelings."
This is what Kao Kalia Yang's A MAP INTO THE WORLD is for me. A book so beautiful. . .it hurts my feelings. What hurts my feelings the most is probably the fact that many young readers will not see this mentor text in community relationships and empathy because it will not appear at the big box stores to sit alongside the ubiquitous mass market offerings to young readers.
For those of us who share picture books at the secondary level, this is where our work really begins. We cannot bridge all of the gaps of quality picture books and illustrated texts our readers might have missed, but we can recognize the books that create natural bridges to, into, across, over, and through. . .these "reading ladders" described by Dr. Teri Lesesne (Professor Nana) in her book for educators of the same title (READING LADDERS).
As a teacher who reads Mitch Albom's TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE with its vignettes into other cultures and how they describe their view of life and of death, A MAP INTO THE WORLD would fit wonderfully well as a read-aloud, read-along share in the room.
This book is a debut picture book offering from Kao Kalia Yang, a Hmong American. The illustrator, Seo Kim, is also sharing her first picture book published in America which is an invitation for classroom teachers to add to their classroom library collections more voices presenting multicultural subject matter from within that culture and that cultural expression. The words and the images come together in this type of presentation that will make the reader feel as though they are part of something new and uniquely-special in the reading and sharing of this book with students of all ages.
I received a digital copy of this book and I purchased a copy from my classroom, Room 407 at Silver Creek High School.
August 27, 2020
Such a sweet book.
October 8, 2019
A big thank-you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for giving me a copy of this book for an unbiased review.
2/5 - It was okay.
This book tackles the topics of immigration, being an older sibling, and grief. The topics it selects are interesting.
However, I felt that the execution could have been improved. Perhaps this picture book attempts to take on too much. I was hoping for more of a multicultural perspective - this book is written about Hmong immigrants, so it could have been an opportunity for children to learn more about a different culture. It also dealt with the birth of new siblings, but did not depict this relationship in a realistic or educational way. Finally, it explores the concept of grief, but barely introduces the character who dies, which makes it difficult to empathize with the loss. Any one of these topics on its own would be interesting, but together, they are shallowly explored.
I did appreciate the narrator's map of the world for Bob - this was certainly the highlight of the story.
2/5 - It was okay.
This book tackles the topics of immigration, being an older sibling, and grief. The topics it selects are interesting.
However, I felt that the execution could have been improved. Perhaps this picture book attempts to take on too much. I was hoping for more of a multicultural perspective - this book is written about Hmong immigrants, so it could have been an opportunity for children to learn more about a different culture. It also dealt with the birth of new siblings, but did not depict this relationship in a realistic or educational way. Finally, it explores the concept of grief, but barely introduces the character who dies, which makes it difficult to empathize with the loss. Any one of these topics on its own would be interesting, but together, they are shallowly explored.
I did appreciate the narrator's map of the world for Bob - this was certainly the highlight of the story.
August 18, 2019
This is a beautifully written and illustrated book about a young Hmong girl's experiences in her home and neighborhood. You get a glimpse into what her life is like as a Hmong immigrant experiencing Minnesota seasons and also as a big sister to a new baby, and finally as a caring neighbor who tries to help an elderly neighbor who loses his wife. This would make a wonderful picture book to accompany a unit study of Hmong people, immigration, story cloths, seasons, new babies and nature study, and it's also just a sweet story with lovely artwork.
My rating system:
1 = hated it
2 = it was okay
3 = liked it
4 = really liked it
5 = love it, plan to purchase, and/or would buy it again if it was lost
I read a temporary digital ARC of the book for the purpose of review.
My rating system:
1 = hated it
2 = it was okay
3 = liked it
4 = really liked it
5 = love it, plan to purchase, and/or would buy it again if it was lost
I read a temporary digital ARC of the book for the purpose of review.
January 23, 2020
A quiet and beautiful book about life changes, set against the progression of seasons. Birth, death, and household moves, are seen through the lens of family, frienships, and love, all of which enable the possibility of resilience and hope.
This was an amazing, life affirming, beautifully illustrated and enormously satisfying book.
This was an amazing, life affirming, beautifully illustrated and enormously satisfying book.
September 27, 2019
Full of hope! So much hope! Children always seem to see the world different than adults, not because they are naive. It's because they are not soiled by the world, they have hope and believe that good reigns! Who is to say that's not true? A wonderful story for people of all ages.
#Netgalley
#Netgalley
November 18, 2019
Our world is often frantic and rushed; this book is lovely and calm and reflective and does not rush its pace as it takes in small moments and celebrates their beauty.
November 21, 2019
Sweet, gentle, sad, and humane.
January 27, 2020
A warm, hopeful reltionship story depicting how family and neighbors come together in a time of sadness.
October 24, 2021
Beautiful and full of care for others.
December 18, 2021
Nope, this isn't me thinking of what to write with tears in my eyes. DEFINITELY NOT. EXCEPT, THAT IS DEFINITELY ME RIGHT NOW. A little girl explores her new home, collecting momentoes to share with her brothers, but she is told her brothers are too young. There is a friendly old couple across the street that always waves, until one day they go inside and never come back out together. What an ending! Quite the tear-jerker.
I liked the art, there was a rustic aesthetic to it. The book is mostly green, with Paj Ntaub spending so much time outside. The fall day spread is lovely! According to the front matter, "The illustrations in this book were created digitally using digital graphite, pastels, watercolor, and scanned handmade textures." There are too many words for this to work as a story time book, but it should absolutely be highlighted in lists, displays, etc.
Information from the publisher's website: https://lernerbooks.com/shop/show/17915
Recommended for K-3.
I liked the art, there was a rustic aesthetic to it. The book is mostly green, with Paj Ntaub spending so much time outside. The fall day spread is lovely! According to the front matter, "The illustrations in this book were created digitally using digital graphite, pastels, watercolor, and scanned handmade textures." There are too many words for this to work as a story time book, but it should absolutely be highlighted in lists, displays, etc.
Information from the publisher's website: https://lernerbooks.com/shop/show/17915
Recommended for K-3.
August 3, 2019
A Hmong family moves into a house across the street from an elderly white couple, who they make friends with. But when the wife of the elderly couple dies, the little girl, Paj Ntaub, tries to think of what she can do to help her neighbor feel better.
Paj Ntaub also means the embroidery that makes the story clothes that tells the story of the Hmong people.
This gives you an idea of how the little girl solves the problem of making the neighbor realize that he can come to them for anything. She takes her chalk and draws a map into the world for Bob, so he knows he can always come to them for whatever they wanted.
Lovely quiet book about friendship and love.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
Paj Ntaub also means the embroidery that makes the story clothes that tells the story of the Hmong people.
This gives you an idea of how the little girl solves the problem of making the neighbor realize that he can come to them for anything. She takes her chalk and draws a map into the world for Bob, so he knows he can always come to them for whatever they wanted.
Lovely quiet book about friendship and love.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
October 11, 2021
This gorgeous picture book is powerful as it deals with the death of a neighbor and the empathy of a young Hmong girl named Paj Ntaub. We see the circle of life as the main character becomes a big sister to two baby twin brothers. All the while, the seasons bear witness to the loving interaction as Paj Ntaub notices the beauty of nature: growing vegetables, leaves on the trees, snowflakes, the first worm of spring, lilac flowers, etc. In the end, Paj Ntaub finds a beautiful way to share these discoveries in a map into the world that she creates with colorful chalk for her grieving neighbor. This is so very beautiful with lovely artwork and it’s sweetly emotional in the end. The illustrations in this book were created digitally using digital graphite, pastels, watercolor, and scanned handmade textures.
For more children's literature, middle grade literature, and YA literature reviews, feel free to visit my personal blog at The Miller Memo!
For more children's literature, middle grade literature, and YA literature reviews, feel free to visit my personal blog at The Miller Memo!
February 13, 2022
Disclaimer – I didn't read this book, rather I witnessed it through the medium of read-along Youtube video, courtesy a month-long programme of such events devised by the publisher. Even though lockdowns are getting to be a thing of the past I cannot see a reason not to applaud such an initiative, aiding educators and youth literacy groups with free materials. And yes, I am still providing my opinions entirely off my own bat and with no thoughts of bias, prejudice or baksheesh.
Where this particular book is concerned, it may well need a little parental company, although not for any typical triggering reasons. No, this is one of those subtle books, giving its lesson away in much less dramatic fashion than the norm. A slightly wordy picture book, it concerns the young girl of a family of Hmong, recently moved to the US. She has parents, grandma, and will soon gain two baby brothers, but the communication with the elderly folks across the street is just a wave, until it's too late. Our heroine sees someone lost as a result, causing the titular creation. It's a simple tale calmly going about its business of showing inter-generational, inter-cultural communication, and doing it without belabouring the race differences or anything else that more overt books might concentrate on. However the well-meaning nature of it all doesn't automatically mean it will be regularly read; three and a half stars.
Where this particular book is concerned, it may well need a little parental company, although not for any typical triggering reasons. No, this is one of those subtle books, giving its lesson away in much less dramatic fashion than the norm. A slightly wordy picture book, it concerns the young girl of a family of Hmong, recently moved to the US. She has parents, grandma, and will soon gain two baby brothers, but the communication with the elderly folks across the street is just a wave, until it's too late. Our heroine sees someone lost as a result, causing the titular creation. It's a simple tale calmly going about its business of showing inter-generational, inter-cultural communication, and doing it without belabouring the race differences or anything else that more overt books might concentrate on. However the well-meaning nature of it all doesn't automatically mean it will be regularly read; three and a half stars.
August 3, 2019
ARC provided by Netgalley
This lovely picture book is beautifully written and illustrated. It is a story of family and friendship that also touches on grief and loss.in a way that is perfectly age-appropriate for young children. Seasons change, children grow, and our young narrator deals with big changes, but her resilience and empathy, and the boundless love she shares with her family shine through on every page. This is a book that works for a family looking for stories about immigration, or for hopeful stories about loss, but it is also just a beautiful, quiet picture book for any family to read.
This lovely picture book is beautifully written and illustrated. It is a story of family and friendship that also touches on grief and loss.in a way that is perfectly age-appropriate for young children. Seasons change, children grow, and our young narrator deals with big changes, but her resilience and empathy, and the boundless love she shares with her family shine through on every page. This is a book that works for a family looking for stories about immigration, or for hopeful stories about loss, but it is also just a beautiful, quiet picture book for any family to read.
June 28, 2022
There are changes afoot for Paj Ntaub. As she is making sense of all of them, she realizes that her neighbor might be hurting...his wife has died. So she takes her artistic talent to make a map into the world, on his driveway, "Just in case you need it." There are so many beautiful things in this book but, primarily, for me, I LOVE how this story shares the sensitivity and big hearts of children. *This book deserves all of the attention it has been getting!
December 12, 2019
Grab a tissue - this book will get you in the feels. Paj Ntaub keeps an avid eye on the changes in the world around her, through the seasons at their new house, watching as her baby brothers grow. The neighbor across the way loses his wife of 60 years, and the ending shows the idea she has to comfort him... This book starts out deceptively simple, but it all comes together in the end - super sweet and touching.
March 8, 2021
A young Hmong girl and her family adjust to life in Minnesota and make friends with the neighbors. This is just a beautiful story about life and the world around us. The young girl shows us how to be a good person, good daughter, good big sister, and a good neighbor. It's just lovely and would make a good group read aloud or one-on-one read. Definitely recommended! 4.5 stars
June 18, 2021
Written by a woman of Hmong descent this is a lovely and delicate story of a little girl's first year in their new home. She now has twin baby brothers to learn about, the weather that each season brings, and their neighbors.
This is a very nicely written and illustrated book. My hat is off to Yang, the author, and Seo Kim, the illustrator.
This is a very nicely written and illustrated book. My hat is off to Yang, the author, and Seo Kim, the illustrator.
January 15, 2020
This picture book story was similar to Julie Flett's Birdsong. The family moves, and lives across the street from an elderly couple, whom they befriend. After the older man's wife passes, the young girl, with permission, draws chalk pictures on his sidewalk. The illustrations are beautiful, and the story heartwarming.
January 30, 2020
A beautifully written book about a young Hmong girl who experiences additions to her family as well as loss. The story itself is a tear jerker. I absolutely love the images and the fact that this is a picture book with Hmong characters that simply tells a story and doesn’t teach us directly about their culture; it makes me think their culture is becoming more well known 🙂
November 19, 2019
I definitely teared up at the ending of this one. A simple story, but warm-hearted and rooted in lived experience.
January 13, 2020
A beautiful (and beautifully illustrated) story about connections, living, and change.
March 1, 2021
Such a beautiful story about being a neighbor, but so much more.
March 15, 2021
this was cute :) the soft colors and the simple story were nice
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