A Taste of Home

by Richard Ho, Sibu T. P. (Illustrator)

Overview

In this colorful celebration of culture, community, and the food that binds us all together, follow a young boy on a culinary tour of New York City, perfect for fans of ALL ARE WELCOME and WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

What is home?

To one child, home is this street he knows better than any other. Where his family has lived for as long as he can remember.

But to another…home is also another place. Where she lived when she was a child. Far away, yet close enough in memory.

Or maybe home is a place they never saw themselves. That only grandparents or great-grandparents knew.

And maybe, home is not a place at all. Maybe home is people, who gather to share, and celebrate.

Follow a group of children as they walk through urban streets and meet friends with immigrant parents and grandparents. Together, by picking up ingredients from all around the world, they begin to prepare a shared meal that celebrates the diversity of their city.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250395849
Publisher:	Roaring Brook Press
Publication date:	08/20/2024
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Richard Ho is a children’s book author who was once, himself, a child. He is a former journalist and educational scriptwriter who enjoys writing stories about science, culture, and the magic of everyday life. He is the author of critically acclaimed The Lost Package as well as Red Rover.

Born and raised in New York, Sibu T.P. is a first-generation child of immigrants. He spent a great deal of his childhood years scribbling and sketching, dreaming and imagining. Today, he tells stories through picture books. Sibu studied English Lit at SUNY Stony Brook, and illustration at the Hartford Art School. When he's not in front of his drawing board, he's taking pictures while hiking, and running from squirrels.

Richard Ho is a children’s book author who was once, himself, a child. He is a former journalist and educational scriptwriter who enjoys writing stories about science, culture, and the magic of everyday life. Red Rover is his first book for young readers.

Editorial Reviews

"This evocative tour of New York City's Lower East Side celebrates the neighborhood’s immigrant cultures." — Kirkus Reviews

"This is a highly effective tool for encouraging children to look into the rich diversity in their communities and realize the many ways immigration adds to the American experience for all who live here." — School Library Journal

"A fresh pop of flavor." — Booklist

From the Publisher

07/01/2024

PreS-Gr 1—The Lower East Side of New York City is the setting for this story of a boy who goes out of his apartment one day with the mandate from his mother to "bring back a taste of home." His mother's home is Israel. But while the boy is clear that for him, "home" is his neighborhood, he knows that for many of his neighbors, home is somewhere far away. The text expands and encompasses his neighbors' homes, whose flavors have been captured in the shops, bodegas, and Asian restaurants in the area. A culminating picnic with the diverse population of his community features children and adults with roots that span the globe, and flavors that cover an entire picnic blanket. Illustrations capture the immediate location with ties to distant locales effectively connecting near and far. Notes at the end extend the story for children not familiar with the Lower East Side, but this book will be relatable where cultures and communities continue to mix, no matter where readers live. VERDICT This is a highly effective tool for encouraging children to look into the rich diversity in their communities and realize the many ways immigration adds to the American experience for all who live here.—John Scott

School Library Journal

2024-05-04
This evocative tour of New York City's Lower East Side celebrates the neighborhood’s immigrant cultures.

A tan-skinned Jewish child, old enough for an independent outing, walks through the neighborhood toward the many varied food markets. Along the way, he connects with friends of Puerto Rican, Chinese, and Indian descent, and they gather food from each of their cultures. The wistful text juxtaposes the street-level specifics of urban living—a kosher grocery store, a bodega cat, a roast duck hanging in a window—with philosophical musings about the meaning of home. The digital illustrations mirror this effect, as foregrounded exchanges in the Manhattan markets give way to nostalgic backgrounds depicting the children’s families’ homelands. The postures of the children and their neighbors convey a welcoming warmth, inviting readers—and possibly newcomers—into the markets’ small domains. A quirk of the illustrated eyes, however, makes the lighter-skinned characters look overwhelmingly exhausted, a distracting idiosyncrasy that works against the deliberate positivity of the text. Backmatter provides brief context for each of the Lower East Side cultures depicted in the book, and maps on the endpapers hint at further foods and cultures around the corner. Though the text acknowledges changes over time, it doesn’t mention gentrification, which threatens the robustness of all these neighborhood microcosms.

A rose-colored homage to the power of food to build community in a Manhattan melting pot. (author’s and illustrator’s notes) (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews