What do you think?
Rate this book
Blablablá:
It’s Dat’s first day of school in a new country! Dat and his Mah made a long journey to get here, and Dat doesn’t know the language. To Dat, everything everybody says — from the school bus driver to his new classmates — sounds like gibberish. How is Dat going to make new friends if they can’t understand each other? Luckily there’s a friendly girl in Dat’s class who knows that there are other ways to communicate, besides just talking. Could she help make sense of the gibberish?
Es el primer día de clase de Dat en un nuevo país. Dat y Ma han hecho una larga travesía para llegar aquí, pero Dat no sabe hablar el
idioma. Para Dat, todo lo que dicen todas las personas a su alrededor, desde el conductor del autobús escolar hasta sus nuevos compañeros de clase, suena a blablablá. ¿Cómo hará Dat nuevos amigos sin poder hacerse entender? Por suerte, en la clase de Dat, hay una compañera muy amigable que sabe que no siempre hay que hablar para poder comunicarse. Con su ayuda, ¿podrá Dat entender tanto blablablá?
Es el primer día de clase de Dat en un nuevo país. Dat y Ma han hecho una larga travesía para llegar aquí, pero Dat no sabe hablar el
idioma. Para Dat, todo lo que dicen todas las personas a su alrededor, desde el conductor del autobús escolar hasta sus nuevos compañeros de clase, suena a blablablá. ¿Cómo hará Dat nuevos amigos sin poder hacerse entender? Por suerte, en la clase de Dat, hay una compañera muy amigable que sabe que no siempre hay que hablar para poder comunicarse. Con su ayuda, ¿podrá Dat entender tanto blablablá?
40 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2022
8 people are currently reading
734 people want to read
About the author
Young Vo
7 books17 followersYoung Vo learned to draw before he could write. He drew a lot of characters, then began to write stories for them. There were not many job choices that he could make, so he decided to be an anuimator, illustrator, and author. Now he writes and draws his stories before the sun rises, then during the day, he animates.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 306 reviews
October 6, 2022
Dat is in a new school in a new place and everyone around him speaks gibberish, but Dat does not. He feels all alone until, suddenly, a person appeared on the playground with him. They couldn't really talk together at first, but they could play. School is hard without knowing gibberish, and the school bus ride is lonely until the person appears again and begins to teach Dat words. And pretty soon Dat and Julie are friends and are filled with words to share together.
This story felt so fresh and new and I loved the way Julie boldly befriended Dat and how that friendship benefited them both. The illustrations beautifully carry the parts of the story that are hard to communicate in words.
This story felt so fresh and new and I loved the way Julie boldly befriended Dat and how that friendship benefited them both. The illustrations beautifully carry the parts of the story that are hard to communicate in words.
October 16, 2023
Thanks to Beth Shaum for introducing this book to me.
It is the perfect picture book to read at the beginning of a new school year, especially if you have new language speakers in your class. As someone who once taught English as a Second Language, I highly recommend it for all teachers to read. If I was still working, I would read it to the staff at our first group meeting.
Dat heads off to school in a place where he doesn't know the language. Everything sounds like gibberish to him. On top of that, People can't seem to get his name straight. It's all overwhelming for the young boy. Then a young girl takes him in hand. She invites him to play with her and as she befriends him, ends up helping him learn this new language.
The imagery in this book is absolutely brilliant. Vo reveals Dat's experience by portraying the speakers of gibberish as black and white cartoonish characters, while he is shown more realistically in colour. While his emotions are shown clearly, the reader has to work a bit harder to unpack those of the rest of his cartoonish classmates. As his comprehension of this new language increases, we see glorious colour all over the pages.
Young Vo has shown Dat's world transform across the span of one day. This is really my only quibble with this book. I know it's only a metaphorical day, but I worry that children might think that learning a new language is easier than it really is.
It is the perfect picture book to read at the beginning of a new school year, especially if you have new language speakers in your class. As someone who once taught English as a Second Language, I highly recommend it for all teachers to read. If I was still working, I would read it to the staff at our first group meeting.
Dat heads off to school in a place where he doesn't know the language. Everything sounds like gibberish to him. On top of that, People can't seem to get his name straight. It's all overwhelming for the young boy. Then a young girl takes him in hand. She invites him to play with her and as she befriends him, ends up helping him learn this new language.
The imagery in this book is absolutely brilliant. Vo reveals Dat's experience by portraying the speakers of gibberish as black and white cartoonish characters, while he is shown more realistically in colour. While his emotions are shown clearly, the reader has to work a bit harder to unpack those of the rest of his cartoonish classmates. As his comprehension of this new language increases, we see glorious colour all over the pages.
Young Vo has shown Dat's world transform across the span of one day. This is really my only quibble with this book. I know it's only a metaphorical day, but I worry that children might think that learning a new language is easier than it really is.
April 22, 2022
Every teacher from K-2 should have this brilliant book in their library! Young Vo's unusual combination of pictograms and Steamboat Willie-esque illustration somehow perfectly conveys what it feels like to move to a new place where you don't speak the language.
Pairs well with "Drawn Together" by Le/Santat, as well as Shaun Tan's "The Arrival".
Pairs well with "Drawn Together" by Le/Santat, as well as Shaun Tan's "The Arrival".
January 15, 2023
I get picture books from the Timberland Regional Library to read, review, and decide to purchase for my school library. The first thing I noticed about this copy is that the pages were already well loved by someone who needed to hear this story over and over. Or someone was going back and forth once they knew how to break the code. You might think this book is for kids in primary grades, but the older kids will love going through and deciphering the messages throughout the book.
February 26, 2023
Pure, dead, brilliant.
This was face out on the New shelf and I grabbed it because great cover. There was a book, so, yes, and maybe it was about some reading disability, whatever.
It has custom endpapers, which at the front are little icons of mostly common things easily understood by most North American kids. Mostly Gears, musical notes, flower, is that a house, lock, clover, branch, fire, if that one is fire, is this a crown? The title word is broken into three syllables, as on the front cover, but also spread onto three rows.
The next spread shows a simple tropical island with an adult woman and child looking to the right, over the ocean, under the sun. The sky is blue and white. There's a fish in the ocean and a teapot. At the far right is a small sail boat with a woman and a child. The scene darkens in swathes from left to right, with stars appearing. The next spread darkens further in bands, the blue oceans becoming grey, a rubber duck and periscope amid the waves, more stars, a crescent moon, and a passenger plane. The grey scene with stars clouds and hills or fog becomes a street with a house and a city skyline in the background, a silly cartoonish bus with symbols on the side at a bus stop, a lumpish greyscale mother and daughter standing to the side of a mother and son in a more realistic style, in full color.
On the next spread we see the girl and her mother from the front, still greyscale but highly stylized like early cartoons, the busdriver, too is grey, with micky mouse gloved hands and a nose more like Goofy, his speech balloon is all gibberish symbols. The boy, Dat, hugs his mother goodbye and introduces himself to the driver, who gets his name wrong.
And so his day goes, Dat in color, the rest in greyscale, the other teachers as old school cartoons who might be dog people, the other kids are strange little monsters, the reader as confused as Dat by everything, including the gibberish word symbols. After a long, puzzling day amid the outsized monsters, there is more color and clarity, and the world begins to make sense to the reader, just as it does to Dat.
The final endpaper spread replaces the black and white icons with letters.
Vo has taken his experience as an animator and created empathy for the stranger as no words have ever done. I am awed.
Library copy
This was face out on the New shelf and I grabbed it because great cover. There was a book, so, yes, and maybe it was about some reading disability, whatever.
It has custom endpapers, which at the front are little icons of mostly common things easily understood by most North American kids. Mostly Gears, musical notes, flower, is that a house, lock, clover, branch, fire, if that one is fire, is this a crown? The title word is broken into three syllables, as on the front cover, but also spread onto three rows.
The next spread shows a simple tropical island with an adult woman and child looking to the right, over the ocean, under the sun. The sky is blue and white. There's a fish in the ocean and a teapot. At the far right is a small sail boat with a woman and a child. The scene darkens in swathes from left to right, with stars appearing. The next spread darkens further in bands, the blue oceans becoming grey, a rubber duck and periscope amid the waves, more stars, a crescent moon, and a passenger plane. The grey scene with stars clouds and hills or fog becomes a street with a house and a city skyline in the background, a silly cartoonish bus with symbols on the side at a bus stop, a lumpish greyscale mother and daughter standing to the side of a mother and son in a more realistic style, in full color.
On the next spread we see the girl and her mother from the front, still greyscale but highly stylized like early cartoons, the busdriver, too is grey, with micky mouse gloved hands and a nose more like Goofy, his speech balloon is all gibberish symbols. The boy, Dat, hugs his mother goodbye and introduces himself to the driver, who gets his name wrong.
And so his day goes, Dat in color, the rest in greyscale, the other teachers as old school cartoons who might be dog people, the other kids are strange little monsters, the reader as confused as Dat by everything, including the gibberish word symbols. After a long, puzzling day amid the outsized monsters, there is more color and clarity, and the world begins to make sense to the reader, just as it does to Dat.
The final endpaper spread replaces the black and white icons with letters.
Vo has taken his experience as an animator and created empathy for the stranger as no words have ever done. I am awed.
Library copy
June 26, 2022
Dat arrives in a new country, and starts his first day of school. Everything around him sounds like gibberish, and the people around him resemble cartoon caricatures instead of actual people. And then a girl befriends him, and as she teaches him words in this new language, the cartoons drop away, leaving a vibrant world of possibility. I really liked this picture book, and I think it's a wonderful way of showing young readers how it feels like to be an immigrant in a new country without knowing the language.
May 18, 2022
Gibberish tells the story of a young boy named Dat who is new to the English language and what that feels like to be the new kid at school who doesn't understand everyone. That story arc isn't new, but the way Young Vo tells it and illustrates it is unlike anything I've seen before. His use of black and white cartoonish illustrations for Dat's surroundings along with emojis for dialogue that he doesn't understand really immerses the reader into Dat's world of unknowing. As Dat becomes more attuned to the English-speaking world and begins understanding more, his surroundings become more colorful and less cartoonish.
This book is brilliant and so incredibly innovative. I'm calling it now: 2023 Caldecott medalist. I will be shocked if it doesn't at least win an honor.
This book is brilliant and so incredibly innovative. I'm calling it now: 2023 Caldecott medalist. I will be shocked if it doesn't at least win an honor.
June 10, 2023
I loved the cleverly executed illustrations: young Dat looks somewhat realistic and in color, while all the other people around him are black and white Disney-esque cartoons (think noodle legs and noodle arms with white gloves on the hands). Dat, whose family has immigrated from an unnamed Asian country, cannot understand the gibberish English that everyone else is speaking. The English gibberish is depicted as characters such as wheels, stars, pizza slices, locks, etc. A clever and humorous story.
December 31, 2022
Absolutely wonderful picture book. I’ve never seen anything like it before. Typical premise of a child from another country feeling overwhelmed and like an outsider at a new school. The illustrations are a wondrous combination of today’s picture book art and truly what looks like old silent film cartoons. It’s really cool and fun. I hope people seek Gibberish out. It has a great chance of winning a 2023 Caldecott.
May 2, 2023
A story about being an outsider when it comes to language. Dat is new to the U.S. and new to the language. Many people I know that are bilingual don't even remember acquiring that second language.
In this story, Dat is all too aware of his inability to communicate. But, one classmate doesn't let that stop her from talking to Dat and making him part of her circle. It shows that many times kids are the ones that breach the divide created by differences much more easily than adults.
I love the drawings and the use of contrast from black and white to color to indicate how Dat is experiencing his day at school.
Thanks to Calista for her review.
In this story, Dat is all too aware of his inability to communicate. But, one classmate doesn't let that stop her from talking to Dat and making him part of her circle. It shows that many times kids are the ones that breach the divide created by differences much more easily than adults.
I love the drawings and the use of contrast from black and white to color to indicate how Dat is experiencing his day at school.
Thanks to Calista for her review.
January 30, 2025
The bus driver was scary
May 14, 2024
Reading Source: Libby App
Format: Ebook
At the beginning, you can see how much Dat struggles in a new environment and not being able to understand the gibberish that others talk, makes him feel frustrated and left out.
As the illustrations start to change from grey and black, to warmer and brighter colors. The mood shifts and Dat begins a new world of understanding and a colorful life, along with a new friend, Julie, that she took the time to talk to him first. Coincidentally, she was the same little girl that lived on his street and took the same bus.
- Learning a second language is harder than you think for a kid. Especially, if English is not your first language. But with the right encouragement and those willing to become your friends and talk to you. Communication becomes much more easier.
Format: Ebook
At the beginning, you can see how much Dat struggles in a new environment and not being able to understand the gibberish that others talk, makes him feel frustrated and left out.
As the illustrations start to change from grey and black, to warmer and brighter colors. The mood shifts and Dat begins a new world of understanding and a colorful life, along with a new friend, Julie, that she took the time to talk to him first. Coincidentally, she was the same little girl that lived on his street and took the same bus.
- Learning a second language is harder than you think for a kid. Especially, if English is not your first language. But with the right encouragement and those willing to become your friends and talk to you. Communication becomes much more easier.
June 3, 2024
Amazing and I loveeeeee itttttt!
This is the story of Dat, a boy who comes to America and does not understand English. He struggles through a day of school until he (spoiler alert) meets a kind girl who finds a way to communicate with him. Soooooo sweet.
It reminds me of Santiago’s Dinosaurios but much more engaging/readable for kindergarten. Sorry Santiago.
I tried to read this to George without overly explaining it to see if he got it on his own and he did! He reports that he liked it.
Also - little fun part - you can decode the “gibberish” that the bus driver, his teacher, and other characters speak if you work at it.
Anyway, so very good. I hope the kids enjoy it as part of the Monarch list this school year!!
This is the story of Dat, a boy who comes to America and does not understand English. He struggles through a day of school until he (spoiler alert) meets a kind girl who finds a way to communicate with him. Soooooo sweet.
It reminds me of Santiago’s Dinosaurios but much more engaging/readable for kindergarten. Sorry Santiago.
I tried to read this to George without overly explaining it to see if he got it on his own and he did! He reports that he liked it.
Also - little fun part - you can decode the “gibberish” that the bus driver, his teacher, and other characters speak if you work at it.
Anyway, so very good. I hope the kids enjoy it as part of the Monarch list this school year!!
September 29, 2025
I LOVE this book! It is about a young boy who moves to a Mandarin-speaking country. Dat and his parents have traveled long to get here, and now his first day of school has arrived. One problem is that he cannot understand anyone's language! Dat finds other ways to communicate and bond with peers. I would recommend this book to children ages 5-10. I think children must realize that it can be better to say less. This book proves just this! It also emphasizes that you do not have to have everything in common, but only one thing to start a connection. I would use it in a discussion on friendship.
February 10, 2023
4-4.5 stars. Even though this didn't win any Caldecott or Youth Media Awards recognition, Young Vo's debut is a brilliant book. Dat has recently moved to a new country. Will he understand what his classmates are saying? Who will be his friend?
If you like Jon Scieszka's [book:Baloney|, you'll like this updated story about not understanding others. Or if you like puzzles, you'll have fun figuring out what the different characters are saying when Dat cannot understand them.
If you like Jon Scieszka's [book:Baloney|, you'll like this updated story about not understanding others. Or if you like puzzles, you'll have fun figuring out what the different characters are saying when Dat cannot understand them.
October 1, 2024
Young Dat has immigrated to a new country and is going to school for the first time. Everything sounds like gibberish to him and it's isolating. But a new friend helps. A very simple but timely story from a child's experience of learning language. I love how the immigrant child is centered and how one other child can make a huge difference. Colorful, stylized illustrations by the author.
July 17, 2022
An interesting way to teach kids the struggle of the immigrant experience. The text does well to show how difficult it is to learn a new language and how one patient person can make a difference. The artwork though, was confusing for my child. The juxtaposition of 2 competing styles was jarring.
August 21, 2022
Dat has just moved to the United States and starts his first day of school. But everything everyone says sounds like gibberish. But then a girl plays with him and teaches him a few words using drawings and slowly things begin to make sense.
There is power in having a friend, even just one friend.
There is power in having a friend, even just one friend.
November 26, 2022
I loved this one! A boy from far away starts at a new school where he doesn't know the language. Everything is baffling and difficult, but as one person tries repeatedly to communicate with him, she becomes more real and more alive to him. This is a book where the illustrations do most of the heavy lifting in terms of meaning and significance. The actual language (aside from the dingbats and other symbols) is fairly simple.
July 25, 2024
The illustrations left a lasting impression on my son. Usually, when a character is the different one, they are portrayed as the "alien," but this time, it is everyone around the character Dat who looks strange and slowly one girl reaches out to him and she becomes more human over time to him.
May 23, 2022
Well this was absolutely brilliant. I can't wait to share with colleagues tomorrow.
July 11, 2022
A perfect book to explain what it is like in a classroom for a newcomer.
August 10, 2022
Lovely! Sweet. Great for all kids.
October 14, 2024
I found the elementary picture book Gibberish by Young Vo on the I Am Your Neighbor awards list. The story follows a boy named Dat, who embarks on a long journey to a new country and starts at a new school. Before he leaves, his mother warns him that when people talk, it will sound like gibberish, so he should just listen carefully. The book takes us through Dat's first day of school, from the bus ride to class, to standing in the lunchroom not knowing where to sit, while everyone around him speaks in a language he cannot understand.
The author and illustrator do an incredible job of representing the gibberish language through a symbolic alphabet. The book begins in black and white, with Dat as the only character in color, which visually emphasizes his isolation. Reading this book, I felt a strong emotional response imagining what it would be like to go to school without understanding anyone or anything around me. The story conveys a powerful sense of isolation and fear as Dat navigates this unfamiliar environment without knowing the language.
By the end of the book, Dat makes a new friend, marking the beginning of his journey toward learning a new language. This is a beautiful and powerful picture book that captures the challenge of being a new student and the feelings of loneliness and isolation that can come with not understanding the language. I believe this would be an excellent book for all teachers, especially those who have English language learners in their classrooms to better understand the experience they go through learning a new language.
Over the summer, I taught in a summer school program where many of my students were learning English. Gibberish served as a powerful window into their experience, helping me better understand the daily struggles and challenges they face in an environment where the language around them is unfamiliar. The book gave me a deeper appreciation for what it must feel like to be a student in a classroom where they do not understand the language.
As an educator, this experience reinforced the importance of empathy and understanding. It reminded me to always consider where our students are coming from and the obstacles they may be navigating, particularly when they are learning a new language. Approaching each student with empathy is key to supporting their growth and helping them feel seen and valued.
The author and illustrator do an incredible job of representing the gibberish language through a symbolic alphabet. The book begins in black and white, with Dat as the only character in color, which visually emphasizes his isolation. Reading this book, I felt a strong emotional response imagining what it would be like to go to school without understanding anyone or anything around me. The story conveys a powerful sense of isolation and fear as Dat navigates this unfamiliar environment without knowing the language.
By the end of the book, Dat makes a new friend, marking the beginning of his journey toward learning a new language. This is a beautiful and powerful picture book that captures the challenge of being a new student and the feelings of loneliness and isolation that can come with not understanding the language. I believe this would be an excellent book for all teachers, especially those who have English language learners in their classrooms to better understand the experience they go through learning a new language.
Over the summer, I taught in a summer school program where many of my students were learning English. Gibberish served as a powerful window into their experience, helping me better understand the daily struggles and challenges they face in an environment where the language around them is unfamiliar. The book gave me a deeper appreciation for what it must feel like to be a student in a classroom where they do not understand the language.
As an educator, this experience reinforced the importance of empathy and understanding. It reminded me to always consider where our students are coming from and the obstacles they may be navigating, particularly when they are learning a new language. Approaching each student with empathy is key to supporting their growth and helping them feel seen and valued.
April 11, 2022
A great book about how it can feel like you're on a different planet when you don't know the primary language of your new home. Through patience and understanding, a boy named Dat becomes friends with a nice girl who doesn't mind that they can't understand each other.
March 24, 2023
This is a good read for anybody who is learning a new language or moved to a different country as a kid or even now. It's really cute and the visuals are amazing and I think describe what it's like to hear a language you don't know and are starting to learn.
February 2, 2022
Like Shaun Tan's book for middle grade and up readers - The Arrival, (Arthur A. Levine Books, c2007)- this is an excellent choice to help children understand what it is like to move to a new place that speaks a different language.
Dat and his Mah make a long journey by boat and train to get to their new home. When Dat gets on the school bus, he realizes he cannot understand a word of what is being said to him; it comes out as gibberish. When a girl in his class reaches out to him at school, he struggles to speak English. On the bus ride home, she sits next to him and begins to put pictures and words together to help him learn to speak this new-to-him language.
Young employs a very simple, concise vocabulary to tell Dat's well-told tale. Dat's words are in English; the new language is shown translated into pictograms. Young's mixed media artwork is similarly spare and lively. He made the interesting choice to make everything about Dat's old home and family in color (the boat trip) and his new home/school/neighborhood in black/white/gray. As a result, Dat and his May are in color with all other people stylized as cartoon monster/aliens from space. Julie's lunchbox/art-box is the first item we see in the new world with rainbow colors. As she begins to draw and extend herself to him, she gains color herself and becomes less cartoonish. Once Dat hits his "Helen Keller moment" and begins to understand the translated words, Julie and the new world are shown in color full color with people no longer depicted as cartoons.
While this will be useful in units on immigration, different cultures, empathy, and making friends, it would be a great choice to give to future code-breakers. They could make it into a game as they translate the many spoken words spelled in pictograms (ex. steaming coffee cup/gears/steaming coffee cup = Mom).
Highly Recommended for PreS-grade 3.
Dat and his Mah make a long journey by boat and train to get to their new home. When Dat gets on the school bus, he realizes he cannot understand a word of what is being said to him; it comes out as gibberish. When a girl in his class reaches out to him at school, he struggles to speak English. On the bus ride home, she sits next to him and begins to put pictures and words together to help him learn to speak this new-to-him language.
Young employs a very simple, concise vocabulary to tell Dat's well-told tale. Dat's words are in English; the new language is shown translated into pictograms. Young's mixed media artwork is similarly spare and lively. He made the interesting choice to make everything about Dat's old home and family in color (the boat trip) and his new home/school/neighborhood in black/white/gray. As a result, Dat and his May are in color with all other people stylized as cartoon monster/aliens from space. Julie's lunchbox/art-box is the first item we see in the new world with rainbow colors. As she begins to draw and extend herself to him, she gains color herself and becomes less cartoonish. Once Dat hits his "Helen Keller moment" and begins to understand the translated words, Julie and the new world are shown in color full color with people no longer depicted as cartoons.
While this will be useful in units on immigration, different cultures, empathy, and making friends, it would be a great choice to give to future code-breakers. They could make it into a game as they translate the many spoken words spelled in pictograms (ex. steaming coffee cup/gears/steaming coffee cup = Mom).
Highly Recommended for PreS-grade 3.
July 18, 2024
Great introduction to entering a new environment without knowing the language.
June 30, 2022
What a cute book about friendship and being a new student who doesn't speak the language. I think everyone should read this and have a little respect for people learning a new language.
January 4, 2024
So interesting how Vo uses multiple styles, colors, patterns, and symbols--the more you look, the more you see. And decoding is possible!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 306 reviews