Box of Dreams

by Faith Kazmi, Christine Almeda (Illustrator)

Overview

A little girl watches as her mama fills up a big box, but this is no ordinary package. It has a special name: the balikbayan box.

Together, they pack all sorts of gifts and treats for their family in the Philippines, but the girl has a secret wish to send along inside. A wish to fly with the box to meet her cousins and Lola and their family and to see and experience all the places where Mama grew up. A wish she hopes will one day come true.

Faith Kazmi and Christine Almeda take readers on a moving journey in this lyrical and poignant picture book that celebrates the dreams that are shared with loved ones back home and the power of love to connect families across oceans and lands.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063251366
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/07/2024
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	189,566
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Faith Kazmi is an educator and author who loved to daydream as a kid (and continues to as an adult). Deeply inspired by her Filipino heritage, she writes stories that celebrate family, culture, and love. By day, Faith works with college students around issues of equity, liberation, and care. She enjoys living in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family and their mini Goldendoodle, Coco. This is Faith’s first picture book, which is truly a dream come true. Visit Faith at faithkazmi.com.

Christine Almeda is a Filipino American freelance illustrator from New Jersey. She is also the illustrator of Lolo’s Sari-Sari Store by Sophia N. Lee and Maya and the Robot by Eve L. Ewing. Christine believes that through the power of creativity and storytelling, art can make life more beautiful. When she's not drawing, she's usually cooking, playing video games, or taking even more photos of the sky. Visit her at christinealmeda.com.

 

Editorial Reviews

03/11/2024

A mother and child connect with loved ones by post and shared memory in Kazmi’s cheerfully told debut. When a child sporting a red dress wonders about the box Mama is packing, Mama says, “It’s a balikbayan box. It means return to home, and it’s how we share our blessings with our family. This box makes me feel closer to them.” The items being packed prompt Mama to share stories of her childhood in the Philippines, picking mangos to eat as an after-school snack and splashing in the Pacific Ocean. Eager to share, the child adds their own items for cousins—plus a wish to visit family in the Philippines. Specific details (e.g., Mama’s including a particular, hard-to-find toothpaste in the box) capture the care that goes into the final product, and Almeda’s inventive digital images, which show Mama placed in moments of reminiscence while packing the box, add imaginative flair to this straightforward telling with a connective heart. An author’s note concludes. Ages 4–8. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"A mother and child connect with loved ones by post and shared memory in Kazmi’s cheerfully told debut. Specific details (e.g., Mama’s including a particular, hard-to-find toothpaste in the box) capture the care that goes into the final product, and Almeda’s inventive digital images, which show Mama placed in moments of reminiscence while packing the box, add imaginative flair to this straightforward telling with a connective heart." — Publishers Weekly

"Almeda perfectly matches the cozy tone of Kazmi’s evenly paced, tender tale with warm colors and expressive cartoons that fill each page. This is one big package of love and joy." — Kirkus Reviews

"This beautiful picture book follows a young girl and her mother as they prepare the balikbayan box for her lola...Told through vivid imagery and dialogue, this beautiful picture book amplifies an important cultural touchstone among families and their loved ones in the Philippines. Authentic and empathetic." — School Library Journal

From the Publisher

06/21/2024

Gr 1–2—Near the Mayon volcano and warm tropical sea lives Lola (grandmother) in the Philippines. She is awaiting her balikbayan box, or return to home box, which contains items of love from her family. This beautiful picture book follows a young girl and her mother as they prepare the balikbayan box for her lola. With wonderful and descriptive scenes of growing up in the Philippines, the mother shares the importance of sending these boxes filled with food, toiletries, and special surprises. The little girl appreciates learning the history of sending these boxes, as well as her mother's life growing up. Readers share in the child's desire to add something to the box, as well as her imagined journey to her lola's home and country. The author's note shares additional history of balikbayan boxes and their place in the culture. VERDICT Told through vivid imagery and dialogue, this beautiful picture book amplifies an important cultural touchstone among families and their loved ones in the Philippines. Authentic and empathetic.—Tracey S. Hodges

School Library Journal

2024-03-23
A child helps pack a balikbayan box, a package of presents sent by members of the Filipino diaspora to family back home.

“Balikbayan” means “return to home,” explains Mama to the young narrator. A large cardboard box sits on the floor of their living room, surrounded by canned food, cookies, shampoo, chocolate, and other items. This box is “how we share our blessings with our family” and “feel closer to them, even though we’re so far away,” Mama says. The child excitedly examines the pasalubong, or gifts. The yellow pencils spur Mama’s happy memories as a schoolgirl in the Philippines; readers see a scene of Mama skipping around rice paddles against the backdrop of the cone-shaped Mayon Volcano and trees filled with sweet mangoes. Inspired, the child wants to contribute, too. After gathering a shirt covered with gold stars, a rainbow ruler, and a sparkly jacket, the little one returns to find Mama reminiscing about beloved foods that her family will make with their gifts. As the duo tape up the box, the child slips in one last thing: a wish to visit the family in the Philippines. Almeda perfectly matches the cozy tone of Kazmi’s evenly paced, tender tale with warm colors and expressive cartoons that fill each page.

This is one big package of love and joy. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews