Review by Booklist Review
This sparely told parable features two people drawn together despite different outlooks and experiences. In the subdued, earth-toned illustrations on one side of each spread sits Dan, a café owner who has never left his small seaside town. "Just come," he says. "I'm right here." In the pale-blue seascapes opposite, Aki the sailor "lives a life like a nomadic gull," forever on the move, seeing new places, a boat his only home: "Hey, I'm going there!" When Dan feels lonely, he looks at keepsakes visitors have left; when Aki's solitude weighs on him, he pages through a photo album of people he has met. Sharp observers may notice that among Dan's keepsakes are mementos from Aki's adventures and among Aki's photos are images of Dan. Lu ends with a convivial gathering in which her two characters sit at opposite ends of the same long table among guests, each distinctly individual, plainly with stories to tell. "In moments like these," she concludes, "they both feel so close to the world." A quiet gem for readers of a meditative bent.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this picture book debut, Lu observes two adults living very different lives. Dan, a pale-skinned, mustache-sporting man shown sitting at a long wooden table, owns a café in a small seaside town. His life is "like a big oak tree, rooted in his town and never moving." Aki, who wears a neatly trimmed black beard, is a sailor. He stands at the prow of a boat, gazing out, and lives "like a nomadic gull, always on the wing and never settling down." Drawing Dan's world in earth tones and Aki's in oceanic blues, close-textured illustrations delineate the parts of human experience that each one is missing out on. Customers from the "far east" and the "far north" tell Dan about distant places he's never been, while Aki occasionally glimpses, as a guest, feelings of camaraderie and family: "Children gathered to hear his stories about the sea." Quiet colors and loose, expressive figures produce artwork that's rich in feeling, with many tiny details--a woodstove drying wet socks, the keepsakes each man treasures--captured at close range. At the story's end, Dan and Aki meet at a warm gathering, and their worlds become one, for a spread at least, in this deeply felt story about reality and longing. Ages 5--9. (Apr.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Two parallel stories describe men who live different lives. Dan, the owner of a small cafe, lives Here, in a town by the sea, while Aki lives There, on a boat on the water. On each spread, Dan is featured on the left-hand side and Aki on the right. Lu uses delicately colored pencil strokes and patterned paint strokes to ground Here in a palette of browns, while There is awash in blues. She employs deliberate language that initially implies opposites but in fact shows that the two have similar feelings. Dan, who has never left his hometown, "wonders what life is like in other places," while Aki, who's "never had a place to call home…wishes for an old friend to talk with." A typical day has Dan opening his cafe, "looking forward to the people who stop in." Aki usually arrives in port, "thinking about the people he might meet." What do they have in common? Regardless of where either one is, their connections with others make for a joyful life. The narrative, originally written in English and Chinese, ends satisfyingly as the two men each reminisce about a special day when Dan welcomed a seafaring stranger into the cafe and Aki visited a cafe where people felt like family, and the two sides of the page finally meet. Dan's cheeks are drawn with pops of beige, while Aki's skin is blue-tinged. Warm and thoughtful. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
