I Dream of Popo
Reviews (93)
For Anybody with a Heart
My two year old daughter does not understand why I keep crying when I read this book (three times as of this posting). The story is beautifully and sensitively told, with illustrations that are somehow simple while evoking very specific and emotional detail. To my Taiwanese folks, the illustrations will make you feel the humidity and smell the frying oil and motorcycle exhaust. For anybody with immigrant roots, diaspora history, grandparents living or departed, bilingual consciousness, and/or a beating heart, please get this book. It is a gorgeous and heart wrenching work of art.
Our connections to the one we love even far away
My daughter and I both cried when reading it. So heartfelt and wonderful. It is a beautiful story that shows love and our relationships carry with us always. The illustrations are just incredible and so well designed. Highly recommend.
Gorgeously nostalgic
This gorgeous book celebrates the special relationship between a child and her grandmother, 婆婆 (Pópo). Through simple but meaningful, rhythmic text, we learn about a little girl who immigrates from Taiwan to the United States. She says goodbye to 婆婆 as she transitions to a new school, language, and culture. When the girl is able to travel to Taiwan to visit 婆婆 again, she notices many changes. 婆婆 has gray hair, and their languages are different. But despite the distance physically and culturally, they are still beautifully connected. Most of the book is in English, but some words are in traditional Chinese characters. [Originally reviewed on chalkacademy(dot)com]
beautifully written and illustrated book
My story echoes that of the protagonist, a child immigrant experience that my American-born child and spouse will never understand. Nonetheless, we are all drawn to the story line and resonate with the universal theme of family, love, loneliness, longing, and loss both as individuals as well as a family. I have yet gone through the whole book without tearing us, as I recognize the familiar sight of Dai Tong rice cooker, streets of Taiwan, and the gui hua blossom, and remembering how beautiful my island is. There is so much sadness and my longing to see my loved ones on the other side of the world, as well as my growing identification with this country that I've come to call home. This story allows me to explore those complex emotions with my young child, and I expect our conversations to grow and evolve as they get older. Beautifully written and exquisitely illustrated picture book - and I would recommend this to all who wish to learn about other cultures, the immigrant experience from the perspective of a child, and those who just are in the mood for a good children's book!
Lovely tribute to Taiwanese families
Beautiful and poignant, this book brings iconic places and familiar settings of Taiwan to life. I love Taiwan and I miss my family, and reading this to my little ones is a small way of passing on some of that same love and fond memories. I feel like it touches on the Taiwanese identity immigrating to the states very well. I cried.
Beautiful Story / Perfect Gift
I bought this beautiful book as a gift for my Taiwanese friend and her daughter (after requesting and reading the library copy many many times to my own kids). She had tears, telling me how perfect it was. Her daughter would run over to her Ah-man every page to point things out to her. Having lost my own mother just a few years ago, I get choked up at the ending every time. This is a beautiful story, highlighting what it’s like to move to America, being an ocean away from someone you love, is a wonderful story. And with a bit about Lunar New Year, it’s perfect for that time of year as well.
Touching story
The story is so touching and it reminds me of my own grandma. I love the art style and the Chinese letters here and there. The glossary in the end is perfect to introduce some Chinese words to kids and the author's notes from the author and the illustrator shared their own immigrant experience and I teared up reading their stories. Highly recommend.
Gorgeous!
I was very lucky to read an early version of this gorgeous picture book! So beautiful and heartwarming!
Love this book.
Love this book, bring tear to my eyes verytime when I read this book. I came from Taiwan, I can relate myself with every page in this book. I don't have a significant one like PoPo in the book, but the feeling about having someone that was close to you but now just getting further away and the feeling of hometown become somewhere you only get to visit not even once a year.
Great illustrations + fantastic story of bicultural upbringing (esp if you're Taiwanese)
Fantastic, vivid illustrations; Very emotional -- My two year old doesn't quite understand (or why his parents tear up towards the end of the story) but its a great story of bicultural upbringing (and it helps if you're Taiwanese and/or immigrant).
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