Review by New York Times Review
WHETHER THEY ARE nostalgic reveries of those who came long ago to this nation of immigrants, or the brutal nightmares of worldwide millions fleeing war, violence and persecution today, memories of migration matter. Telling these stories seems more important than ever - even, and some might say especially, to children. A wave of picture books has arrived to help with this difficult task. THE DAY WAR CAME (CANDLEWICK PRESS, 32 pp.; ages s ?? 8), Nicola Davies's poetic response to the impact of governmental refugee policies - first published in 2016 on The Guardian's website - has now been turned into a picture book, with colored pencil and watercolor illustrations by Rebecca Cobb. After a serene opening featuring a happy little girl at home and school, war arrives with shocking suddenness; gray smoke and ash fill the pristine white pages. "War took everything. War took everyone," Davies writes. Fleeing with others to physical safety, the child, tainted by her refugee status, is rejected repeatedly. Finally, while she is curled into the corner of a dark page in a vivid vision of despair, other children come to nudge her out of hopelessness, "pushing back the war with every step." Davies's powerful words are sensitively represented by Cobb in simple child-centered illustrations, making this an accessible book for those young readers ready to engage with this difficult topic. MEMORY IS WHAT maintains hope in marwan 'S JOURNEY (MINEDITION,36PP.; AGES S TO 7), which was written by Patricia de Arias, illustrated by Laura Borras and first published in Chile in 2016. Young readers are dropped directly into a young boy's trek away from his unnamed war-torn homeland: "I take giant steps even though I'm small. One, two, three ... crossing the desert." A photograph of his mother generates happy remembrances for Marwan, helping him to keep going through the barren landscape to safety. The evocative and lyrical text is brought to life through Borras's ink-and-watercolor illustrations, the brown desert of the boy's present contrasting with the colorful images of his past. By the end, having reached safety, the optimistic Marwan dreams of returning home to a place where "the night never never never goes so dark again," one filled with splendid treelike rays of sunlight. IN CAMILLE ANDROS and Julie Morstad's THE DRESS AND THE GIRL (ABRAMS, 40 PP.; ages 4 to 8) an item of clothing becomes a connection between old and new. Lovingly made by a Greek mother, the dress is worn by her daughter on a voluntary migration, one filled with hope "for something singular, stunning or sensational. For something extraordinary." Welcomed by the Statue of Liberty, the family disembarks in early-20th-century New York, and the dress is misplaced. After years traveling the world, the garment reunites with its original owner, now perfect for her daughter. Andros's words are well matched with Morstad's evocative artwork, conjuring a gentle, lyrical version of what used to be the dominant American immigration story. FOR ALFREDO ALVA, the recollection of his arduous childhood journey from his central Mexican home village to Texas is something he wants others to know about, too. In LA FRONTERA: EL VIAJE CON PAPA: MY JOURNEY WITH PAPA (BAREFOOT BOOKS, 48 PP., $17.99; ages 4 to 8), written with Deborah Mills, he tells of a difficult and frightening trip with his father, one that includes hunger, thirst, exhaustion and fear of discovery. Told in side-by-side Spanish and English text, Alva's story is brought to life by Claudia Navarro's vivid acrylic, graphite and digital collages and given broader context with several pages of information on borders and immigration after the main story. When President Reagan offers amnesty to undocumented migrants of the time, the boy and his father gain citizenship and the rest of the family is able to come to America. Sadly, children and their parents making the same journey today do not have this opportunity. SOME MIGRATION EXPERIENCES are better forgotten. In SPECTACULARLY BEAUTIFUL (POW! kids, 32 pp.; ages 3 T07), written by Lisa Lucas, a Canadian schoolteacher, and illustrated by Laurie Stein, schoolchildren are asked to remember their birthplaces. Some draw favorite foods, happy activities with friends, and special family gifts while Shahad grimly centers hers on "the bricks that made my eyes look like this ... and my leg ... like this." Daily compliments from the teacher, starting with the little girl's yellow hair ribbons, bring tiny smiles that become beams of happiness when the adult says with enormous conviction: "I think you are spectacularly beautiful!" Stein's illustrations - black-and-white photographs of the classroom, school and nearby areas, populated with cartoon images done with the simplest of lines and filled in with flat colors (two tiny crosshatched scars on face and leg are all that differentiate Shahad) - effectively bring out Lucas's poignant parable. RECOVERY FROM DIFFICULT MEMORIES IS also at the heart of Francesca Sanna's me AND MY FEAR (FLYING EYE, 40 PP.; AGES 3 T07). "I've always had a secret," begins the child protagonist, "a tiny friend called Fear." At first, Fear - represented as a small white cuddly creature along the lines of a stuffed animal - helps her tackle such familiar childhood situations as monsters under the bed, but then the tone shifts as we learn that "since we came to this new country, Fear isn't so little anymore." Indeed, the creature gets bigger and bigger as the child copes with the trials of a new place, language and people. But then, a peer reaches out, wanting to play, and is able to show his own Fear. With its warm palette and gentle scenes of the worried child being comforted, this book could function as a sequel to Sanna's astounding debut picture book, "The Journey," which recounted a family's dangerous flight from their home in a war zone. Sanna provides an empathetic exploration of the adjustment to a new land that all migrants experience. SOME BOOKS EXIST to answer questions. These, with their heart-wrenching moments and striking imagery, are certain to provoke questions, especially for young readers unfamiliar with the harsh realities of today's refugees and migrants. What happened to the little girl's family? Why did it take so long for Alfredo to see the rest of his family again? Where is Marwan's mother? Why does Shahad have scars? Who is doing this to them? And - most frightening of all - could this happen to me? Because of this, these are not books for children to read on their own. They should experience them with caring adults who are ready to answer their questions and support them as they learn more about some of the world's darker truths. MONICA EDINGER, a fourth-grade teacher in New York City, is the author of "Africa Is My Home: A Child of the Amistad." She blogs at Educating Alice.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 23, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
An ordinary girl and an ordinary dress once belonged to each other. As the girl longs for something extraordinary, the dress is content with the simplicity of their lives together in Greece. But when it comes time for them to move to America, the trunk containing her faithful dress goes astray. The story then follows the dress' journey through the world as it thinks about her girl and the times they spent together, which, in retrospect, were quite extraordinary. This deceptively simple story is one of immigration, loss, change, unity, possibility, and chance. Most of all, it is about appreciation. While the girl longs for something singular, stunning, or sensational, readers might be drawn to notice that the world around her, created by Morstad's delicately detailed illustrations, is in fact quite stunning. In perfect juxtaposition, the spare, lyrical text is completed by images that capture time, place, and essence. There is a quiet wisdom to this book that asks us to look around and take note and allow time to work its magic.--Amina Chaudhri Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Graceful artwork by Morstad (When Green Becomes Tomatoes) creates an elegiac atmosphere for a story that unfolds in a small Greek village, where blue shutters and red tiles enliven the whitewashed walls. Andros (Charlotte the Scientist Is Squished) writes about a dress ("much like many others, made for a girl by her mother") and a girl; together, they spend their days "picking daffodils, feeling the wind, and staring at the stars" and longing for the extraordinary. When the girl's family emigrates to turn-of-the-century America, the trunk that contains her dress goes missing. One narrative thread personifies the dress, imagining it "searching" the world over for the girl before the dress and the girl, now grown, reunite and remember their shared "singular, stunning, or sensational" history. While the conceit of the dress as an active character feels a bit clunky, the lyrical text and evocative art will make readers linger. Ages 4-8. Author's agent: Lori Kilkelly of Rodeen Literary Management. Illustrator's agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Literary Management. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-An ordinary girl and her favorite dress do ordinary things together every day, but they long for the extraordinary-something singular, stunning, or sensational. One day, the girl and her dress set out on a long journey across the ocean to America. Along the way, they continue to do ordinary things but feel that they may be on the cusp of something extraordinary. The girl and her dress are separated when they reach their destination and they each continue on their own parallel journeys through life. Then one day, something extraordinary happens: the girl, now a woman, is reunited with her favorite dress when she spots it in a store window years later. Wonderfully, the dress is the perfect size for the woman's daughter. And so, a new extraordinary story about a girl and her dress begins. In The Dress and the Girl, Andros tells an immigration tale-an experience that is common but is not always shared. Morstad's light, airy, and simply beautiful illustrations run from cover to cover, including the endpapers, which are in the same pattern as the dress, and act as the perfect accompaniment to the circular plot. Together, the carefully crafted text and gorgeous illustrations pair to tell a truly extraordinary tale. VERDICT A delightful picture book with an important story to be told. Recommended for sharing again and again.-Elizabeth Blake, Brooklyn Public Library © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
During a girl's immigration to America, she loses her favorite flowered dress, handsewn by her mother. Years later, she spots the same dress in a shop and buys it for her own daughter. A warmhearted, quietly told story, with expressive, delicate-lined illustrations showing the girl's Mediterranean-looking island home, the child's shipboard experiences, and the imagined travels of the dress. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Around the turn of the last century, a Greek village girl wears her beloved red dress as she goes about her daily life only to be separated from it when the family emigrates.The child and her dress lead a seemingly idyllic, nature-filled life under blue skies, among whitewashed buildings, but they long for adventure. For unexplained reasons, the family boards a ship, where girl and dress play and go to school as before, details that subtly convey the length of the passage. Upon arrival at Ellis Island, the family is separated from the trunk in which the dress is now packed. The trunk, unclaimed, circles the globe in search of its rightful owners, eventually landing in a secondhand shop. Now grown, the girl spots her dress in the window and buys it for her own daughter. Morstad's (House of Dreams, 2018, etc.) clean illustrations expertly evoke the era through a nostalgic color palette and the (unnamed) locations through carefully chosen details. The opening and closing spreads echo each other, reinforcing the theme of connection. Immigrant stories are perennially relevant, and the rarely seen 20th-century Greek setting is refreshing. However, the dresswhile attributed human feelingsnever generates enough emotion to create dramatic tension, and readers are not shown the impact on the family of starting a new life without most of their worldly possessions.A gentle tale well-suited for family-history and creative-writing units. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
