From the Publisher
★ "Rich with affection, wit, and joy, a captivating peek into Chinese village life." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
★ "Bursting with delightful shenanigans, merry adventures, and family love....a unique story of wonder and joy." —Booklist, starred review
"With Johnston (Ten Owies), debut author Wang recounts cheerful memories from her childhood in this captivating chapter book memoir." —Publishers Weekly
JUNE 2024 - AudioFile
Author/narrator Jin Wang introduces young listeners to the pleasures and challenges of life in the tiny village where she lived in the 1980s. Nan Ba Zi in Inner Mongolia, China, was so remote and dry that families took turns fetching water from the nearest town with a functioning well. Wang's warmly evocative narration highlights her memories of a childhood spent hunting mushrooms and climbing trees despite her mother's constant worry over the state of her clothes. With obvious affection Wang thoughtfully recounts both the beauty of the world around her and the tremendous amount of hard work required to live in the harsh landscape. Her mischievous and fun-loving nature is evident, especially when she emphasizes her own remembered justifications for being just a little bit naughty. N.M. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2024-02-17
Wang looks back on her childhood in Inner Mongolia.
Eight-year-old Jin lives in a one-room mud house in a village of 18 homes with her parents and two younger brothers. “In this small space, we ran into each other all the time,” she says. Life isn’t easy: Water is scarce, hunger is constant, and windstorms whip in from the desert. Offering a child’s-eye view, the adult Wang explains it all in a charmingly matter-of-fact voice. She writes with humor and fondness for her childhood home, employing an understated style that conveys entire essays’ worth of insight in just a few words. About her habit of climbing trees, she says that her mother “was afraid I would fall and break my head open, like a melon. Also she worried that I would rip the pants that had taken her so long to stitch. I am not sure which worry was worse.” Each chapter describes a seemingly mundane episode that nevertheless feels fascinating: traveling with her father to fetch water, speculating about—and looking for—the wolves in the nearby hills, enduring a big storm, foraging for mushrooms, awaiting visits from the popcorn man, having a family portrait taken, and more. Readers will be drawn in by Jin’s delightful voice and will become invested in her stories. The text is broken up by warm, black-and-white spot art, rendered in ink and pencil.
Rich with affection, wit, and joy, a captivating peek into Chinese village life. (authors’ and illustrator’s notes) (Memoir. 7-9)
