Fly Free

by Roseanne Thong, Eujin Kim Neilan (Illustrator)

Overview

Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association Honor Book

In this powerful parable that explores the impact of paying it forward, a young girl named Mai inspires a chain of events that brings good things back to her.

When you do a good deed, it will come back to you. Mai loves feeding the caged birds near the temple but dreams that one day she'll see them fly free. Then she meets a young girl named Thu, and shares the joy of feeding the birds with her. This sets a chain of good deeds in motion that radiates throughout her village and beyond. Set in Vietnam, Roseanne Thong's inspiring story is elegantly illustrated with watercolor on wood by Eujin Kim Neilan.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781662620591
Publisher:	Astra Publishing House
Publication date:	04/02/2024
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.11(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Roseanne Thong is the award-winning author of many children's books, including Wish, Red Is a Dragon, and Round is a Mooncake. She lives in Southern California.

Eujin Kim Neilan is the illustrator of Imagine a Dragon by Laurence Pringle. The Best Winds by Laura E. Williams, and The Rabbit and the Dragon King and In the Moonlight Mist: A Korean Tale, both retold by Daniel San Souci. Born in Korea, she lives in Natick, Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

Asian-Pacific American Librarians Association Honor Book

★ "A perfect jewel... A picture book of rare beauty in both story and artwork."—Library Media Connection, starred review

"A solid choice for multicultural units, this also demonstrates the value of kindness."—Booklist

From the Publisher

Fly free, fly free, in the sky so blue. When you do a good deed, it will come back to you!” sing the Vietnamese characters in Thong’s (Wish) story, as each does something to help the next. Mai wants to release a cageful of birds at the birdseller’s—a traditional Buddhist good deed—but she doesn’t have the money. She leaves water for the oxcart driver, who gives a stranger a ride, who repays the driver with a cake, and so on, until Mai’s birds are freed by another good deed. Neilan (Imagine a Dragon) applies luminous colors to wood with a heavy horizontal grain, creating cloud-streaked skies, rice fields, and mist-shrouded lakes. The tranquil landscapes give appropriate calm to a story about karma, the idea that good deeds accumulate and affect one’s rebirth in the next life. Neilan’s characters look best in profile; in head-on views, their features sometimes appear squashed or lopsided. Still, it’s a useful introduction to Southeast Asia, an explanation of the Buddhist concept of karma (an explanatory note appears in back), and a neat moral tale about paying it forward. Ages 7–9. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

At the gates of the Buddhist temple, Mai sees a cage full of sparrows for sale. Without the money to buy and release them, she offers to feed them. Thu, another little girl, helps and takes heed of Mai's whispered "Fly, free, fly free, / in the sky so blue. / When you do a good deed, / it will come back to you." Thu later gives her beautiful red slippers to another little girl with a cut foot. The "wheel of kindness" continues to turn, with various characters doing something good for someone else until a father, grateful that his son has recovered from illness, approaches the temple to pray, sees and purchases the cage and, to Mai's joy, sets the sparrows free. Buddhist tradition and belief in reincarnation reflects the idea that one's actions, good or bad, affect one's rebirth. The smoothly written circular narrative with its reverent message is authenticated by Neilan's muted watercolors, which are rendered on light tan board and softly depict a Vietnamese countryside peopled by folk wearing conical hats and traditional dress. (Picture book/religion. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews