Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In visually inventive, lovingly finished pastel-and-watercolor spreads and sinuous lines of prose-poetry, debut author-illustrator Wong showcases myriad children encountering the joys of swimming. An adult accompanies a child in each spread, narrating in anticipatory text what awaits them both: "When you can swim,/ first I'll take you to the ocean//... to receive the water's welcome." Throughout, varied figures spanning abilities, ages, body types, and skin tones float, stroke, and dive into and under water. Across numerous locales--a local pool, a sandy beach, an opulent lake, and a winding river--the figures spot sea stars, "listen to the clinking/ of waves passing in and out/ of a million pebbles," dive down deep into a lake "pitch-dark from tree bark," and, in a final, suspenseful sequence, swim together a long way out to an island with ripe blueberries. "Yes, this belongs to you, too," reads an author's note, in which Wong describes learning to swim as an adult. Such belonging is precisely the triumph that the story envisions, offering swimming's freedoms widely, and imagining the way that swimming can lend a feeling of autonomy and connection. Ages 4--8. Agent: Wendi Gu, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc. (May)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3--Wong's 2023 Boston Globe--Horn Book Award--winning debut is absolutely enchanting in any format. On the page, Wong's glorious art celebrates swimmers of every background, enjoying beckoning bodies of water from beaches to ponds to rivers--with glimpses of the magical worlds beneath. Deftly narrated by Tyo over an uplifting soundtrack of nature and musical snippets, the audiobook is an explicit read-along featuring a second narration with turn-the-page splash-y cues. Wong tenderly reads his vulnerable author's note, "When I Learned to Swim," revealing his initial discomfort at the public pool while "growing up as an immigrant kid in Canada." The young children here are never alone, always guided by caring adults by their side, promising "the water's welcome," "landscapes as foreign as the moon," "the clinking of waves," of "rising, floating, daring, conquering" together. VERDICT Libraries should provide ready access to this symbiotic visual/aural feast.
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Review by Horn Book Review
With poetic text and gorgeous, inclusive illustrations, Wong invites readers to learn how to swim -- to conquer fear of the water, and also to reclaim aquatic spaces for Brown, Black, and differently abled bodies. We first meet a young Asian girl suited up in a rainbow-striped one-piece with goggles perched atop her head; a female caregiver tells her of all the wonderful things that can happen "when you can swim." Then the book segues to scenes of such wonderful things: we see varied groups of people of all colors and ages and sizes in ponds, lakes, and oceans, and splashing under waterfalls. The culmination is a four-spread sequence showing a woman and child setting out from shore with bright orange swim buoys, heading to a little island that looks "close enough" but "proves farther at halfway." Yet: "rising, floating, daring, conquering, we'll make it." Pastel and watercolor illustrations play with perspective, showing the world through swimmers' eyes: looking at the trees while floating on their backs, diving into tea-colored waters. The afterword delves into the author's journey to discover and reclaim swimming as a welcoming pastime for all. This isn't just a book about swimming but also "about our ideas of the world"; it's a manifesto that "this belongs to you, too." (c) Copyright 2024. 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
Debut author Wong celebrates the freedom and joys of swimming. With endpapers that depict an Asian child gazing uncertainly at their own reflection in a pool, this book offers beginning swimmers both reassurance and compelling promises of adventure and discovery that will ensue "when you can swim." Images portray adults sharing the gifts of the water with their young ones, from shallow waters perfect for lazy afternoons to the otherworldly landscape of watery depths. Wong's beautiful watercolor-and-pastel illustrations demonstrate a mastery of light and shadow, creating a textural quality that makes each page dance with life and movement. Combined with the lyrical text ("When you can swim, / we'll bend like boulders / beneath rushing waterfalls"), each frame immediately immerses readers in the sights, sounds, and sensations of summer. Swimmers who are diverse in terms of body type, age, skin tone, and ability can be seen enjoying the natural world. In his author's note, Wong shares his own experiences with swimming as a young person of color, explaining that this conscious representation is an affirmation that swimming is for everyone: "Yes, this belongs to you, too." The title is bound to inspire all swimmers to embrace nature, no matter where they are on their journeys. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A gorgeously rendered love letter to swimming and the magical experiences that it can unlock. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
