A young boy’s experience of the initial alienation and confusion is eloquently expressed in pictures placed on pages carefully designed in terms of layout and colour. The only words are jumbled up on signs or heard as a wall of incomprehensible sound to a child who has just arrived in a new country with a different language and culture from what he is used to. Planting a seed brought from his country leads to the nurturing of friendship and feeling at ease with his identity in his new home. Based on the author’s own experience of migrating from Korea to the USA.
Newly arrived from their faraway homeland, a boy and his family enter into the lights, noise, and traffic of a busy city in this dazzling wordless picture book.
The language is unfamiliar. Food, habits, games and gestures are puzzling. The boy clings tightly to his special keepsake from home and wonders how he will find his way. How will he once again become the happy, confident child he used to be?
Walk in his shoes as he takes the first tentative steps towards discovering joy in his new world.
A poignant and affirming view of the immigrant experience.
Patti Kim was born in Busan, Korea. Raised in Maryland on both sides of the tracks. Author of A Cab Called Reliable and Here I Am. Married with kids, but can't stop writing about her childhood.
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