Status
Book Bag 14
Publication
Capstone Young Readers (2017), 32 pages
Library's review
:Afishing trip is not just a fishing trip in this poignant, semiautobiographical tale.
As a young boy growing up in a Vietnamese refugee family in Minneapolis, Phi would wake up “hours before the sun comes up” to go fishing with his dad. Right from the start, he hints at his family’s dire
Spare and simple, a must-read for our times. (Picture book. 5-9): www.kirkusreviews.com, A Kirkus Starred Review
As a young boy growing up in a Vietnamese refugee family in Minneapolis, Phi would wake up “hours before the sun comes up” to go fishing with his dad. Right from the start, he hints at his family’s dire
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straits: “In the kitchen the bare bulb is burning.” Readers learn they are up so early because his dad got a second job. And Phi asks innocently, “If you got another job, why do we still have to fish for food?” At the pond, father and son share moments of tenderness. A nod here—when Phi lights a fire with one strike of a match; a warning there—to avoid “the spicy stuff” in his bologna sandwich. Father and son also bond through stories. “I used to fish by a pond like this one when I was a boy in Vietnam,” says Dad. “With your brother?” Phi asks. Dad nods and looks away, a clue to the unspeakable devastation of the war. When they catch enough fish for dinner they head home, Phi dreaming about the landscape of Dad’s home country. Together, Phi’s gentle, melodic prose and Bui’s evocative art, presented in brushy and vividly colored panels and double-page spreads, rise above the melancholy to tell a powerful, multilayered story about family, memory, and the costs of becoming a refugee.Spare and simple, a must-read for our times. (Picture book. 5-9): www.kirkusreviews.com, A Kirkus Starred Review
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Awards
A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book (Picture Books — 2017)
Caldecott Medal (Honor Book — 2018)
Boston Globe–Horn Book Award (Honor — Picture Book — 2018)
Georgia Children's Book Award (Finalist — Picturebook — 2021)
Monarch Award (Nominee — 2019)
Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature (Winner — Picture Book — 2018)
Charlotte Zolotow Award (Winner — 2018)
Flicker Tale Award (Nominee — Picture Books — 2019)
Marion Vannett Ridgway Award (Winner — 2018)
Skipping Stones Honor Award (2018)
Three Stars Book Award (Nominee — Young Readers — 2019)
Ezra Jack Keats Book Award (Honor — New Illustrator — 2018)
Star of the North Picture Book Award (Nominee — 2019)
Minnesota Book Awards (Finalist — Children's Literature — 2018)
CCBC Choices (2018)
Great Reads from Great Places (Minnesota — 2018)
New York Public Library Best Books: For Kids (Picture Books — 2017)
Notable Children's Book (2018)
Nerdy Book Award (2017)
Penn GSE's Best Books for Young Readers (Selection — Picture Books — 2017)
Picture This Recommendation List (Fiction — 2019)
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Kids (Picture Books — 2017)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2017
ISBN
1623708036 / 9781623708030