Review by Booklist Review
A young girl is trepidatious about traveling to China for the first time to spend Lunar New Year with her maternal relatives. Throughout the journey, Mama reassures Little Snow, reminding her of their heritage and sharing how their family "expands across borders. We belong in the sky." As Little Snow looks out the airplane window, migrating red-crowned cranes fly alongside. In rich, metaphoric language, Mama explains, "Long ago, when we were birds, we soared across the seas." A mythic tale of freedom ("the skies were our highways; the stars were our street signs") and ancestral love poetically unfolds. When the birds became people, their movement was hindered by "steel walls that cut against the ocean, surveilled the skies, and patrolled the coasts, splitting families in two." Snow's magic-infused illustrations movingly capture mother and child riding on the back of a bird to their homeland. At Grandma's house, Little Snow makes new memories. An uplifting picture-book debut about intrinsic connections, both past and present.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Snow channels their six-year-old self, per an author's note, in this visually stunning solo picture book debut that sees a child heading to visit family in a Chinese countryside village. As Mama and Little Snow take off in an airplane, the youth shivers ("Maybe we shouldn't be up so high") and asks whether the two can't spend Lunar New Year together at home. In poetic conversational lines, Mama calmly reassures: "Our family expands across borders. We belong in the sky." Gesturing at a flock of red-crowned cranes just outside the aircraft's windows, Mama explains that the birds are the child's aunties. In lushly textured digital images, ancestral spirits vesseled in the bodies of cranes are soon shown traversing a starry sky ("Long ago, when we were birds,/ we soared across the seas"). And as the two reach their destination, they're depicted riding together on a crane's back, then joining family at Grandma's home, where Little Snow is comforted by the understanding that she "belongs not to just one home but to many"--even the sky. Ages 4--8. (Dec.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1--3--An unusual offering from Snow, this is a mythic tale that celebrates Chinese North American heritage and culture. It offers solidarity with all who live away from their ancestral homes, whether through forced or elective migration, and proffers a wish for the possibility of return and connection. Through digital illustrations that use a palette of violet-orange sunsets contrasted with aqua blue and yellow highlights, this lyrical picture book illuminates a journey from North America to China via an airplane. The book seeks to communicate the importance of cultural reclamation for the descendants of immigrants. In an end note, the artist explains that to counter feelings of "never belonging anywhere," the book is an invitation to anyone displaced from their homeland and culture to believe that the sky and ocean will always be their home. Symphonic alliteration and assonance may compel older readers to read this text out loud, and adults will notice that the susurrations contrast with the painful history of separation intertwined with Chinese immigration to North America; the spreads are used to majestic effect. VERDICT Snow's cinematic vision is mesmerizing; this is recommended for school libraries and older picture book readers.--Jessica Fenster-Sparber
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
An ode to those who traverse boundaries, told by a mother to her daughter as they travel to see relatives for Lunar New Year. Filmmaker and poet Snow uses birds as a metaphor for immigration in this story of a family--who have apparently journeyed to a new country--returning to China for a visit. Nervous to fly, the child wants to go home, but Mama gestures to the cranes flying alongside the plane ("They are your aunties") and explains that "our family expands across borders. We belong in the sky." She adds, "Long ago, when we were birds, we soared across the seas." Snow's illustrations are as grand as the book's language: "The skies were our highways; the stars were our street signs." Migrating birds holding the shape of people within their bodies fly amid a deep blue cosmos of stars. Mama notes that when the birds became people, flying down to Earth with the stars within them, those unfamiliar with the skies "built steel walls" that patrolled and surveilled, "splitting families in two." Little Snow and Mama descend on the back of a giant bird and then have dinner with Grandma and her family. The juxtaposition of magical metaphor and the psychedelic colors of everyday life at Grandma's house feel surreal but perfectly convey the feeling of mystery and wonder at this world in which souls can soar. Young readers will understand Snow's message viscerally, while adults will appreciate the political implications. A relatable vision of immigration that takes flight. (author's note, note from Make Me a World founder Christopher Myers)(Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
