About This Book:
From New York Times bestselling author and illustrator, Kelly Yang and Xindi Yan, is a joyful story of a Chinese American girl translating for her immigrant parents
Laila knows how clever, kind, and funny her Mama and Baba are—but sometimes they need her help translating things from English. With English classes being too expensive, Laila decides to become her parents’ teacher, even though she’s just learning the language too. There’s lots that Laila knows (like you don’t pronounce the t in ballet) but there’s so much she doesn’t know too. Together, they embrace the joy and struggles of learning a new language.
*Review Contributed By Karen Yingling, Staff Reviewer*
“Add oil!”
The artwork is delightful, and Laila and her parents are shown in a variety of settings. They go to shops, the bank, school, and spend time in their apartment. There’s plenty of white space on the page so the words are very clear, and there aren’t too many sentences on each page. This makes it perfect for classroom story times, and I can see this being used to help build empathy.
It’s great to see young children wanting to help out in books like Compestine’s The Chinese New Year Helper, and Laila and her parents efforts to learn a new language will ring true with readers who were invested in titles like Amy Wu and the Warm Welcome, by Zhang and Chua, Drawn Together, by Lê and Santat, Vo’s Gibberish, and Wang and Yum’s Luli and the Language of Tea.
