Starred Review ALA Booklist (Sat Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2017)

Starred Review Before dawn, a Vietnamese American man and his young son set out to fish for their supper in a nearby lake. As they travel the lamp-lit streets, build a small fire, and drop their hook into the water, the little boy contemplates his parents' lives, the everyday task of fishing for their supper, and the stories they've told him about living in Vietnam before coming to America as refugees. Phi's bittersweet story of the resourcefulness of an immigrant family is lovingly illustrated in Bui's evocative artwork. Her expressive ink-black brushstrokes stand out against a background of star-speckled, crepuscular blues, and at poignant moments in Phi's story, she movingly homes in on the facial expressions of the boy and his father. While the story occasionally hints at painful things, the gravity of those events is depicted in the emotional reactions of the characters in the present, rather than images of war in the past. The boy's father has fond memories of Vietnam, heartbreak for the people he lost in the war, and gratitude for the opportunities afforded to him in the U.S., all of which the boy silently internalizes into both appreciation for his life and curiosity about a place he's never been. This wistful, beautifully illustrated story will resonate not only with immigrant families but any family that has faced struggle.

Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

A fishing trip is not just a fishing trip in this poignant, semiautobiographical tale. As a young boy growing up in a Vietnamese refugee family in Minneapolis, Phi would wake up "hours before the sun comes up" to go fishing with his dad. Right from the start, he hints at his family's dire straits: "In the kitchen the bare bulb is burning." Readers learn they are up so early because his dad got a second job. And Phi asks innocently, "If you got another job, why do we still have to fish for food?" At the pond, father and son share moments of tenderness. A nod here—when Phi lights a fire with one strike of a match; a warning there—to avoid "the spicy stuff" in his bologna sandwich. Father and son also bond through stories. "I used to fish by a pond like this one when I was a boy in Vietnam," says Dad. "With your brother?" Phi asks. Dad nods and looks away, a clue to the unspeakable devastation of the war. When they catch enough fish for dinner they head home, Phi dreaming about the landscape of Dad's home country. Together, Phi's gentle, melodic prose and Bui's evocative art, presented in brushy and vividly colored panels and double-page spreads, rise above the melancholy to tell a powerful, multilayered story about family, memory, and the costs of becoming a refugee. Spare and simple, a must-read for our times. (Picture book. 5-9)

School Library Journal Starred Review (Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2017)

K-Gr 2This gorgeous tale about a father/son fishing trip shows the interconnectedness of family and the inexorable way that generational history impacts the present. The story is told from the boy's perspective, as his father wakes him long before dawn to go fishing. Although the child enjoys the outing as a special adventure with his dad, they are fishing for food, not sport, and they must be home in time for the father to leave for work. The quiet time together provides opportunities for the man to talk about his past life fishing with his brother in a different pond in Vietnam, long ago before the war and before coming to America. After they return home, triumphant, with a bucket of fish, the boy contemplates his role as the youngest in the familyno longer a babyand even though he is sad that both his parents have to work, he knows there will be a happy, love-filled family dinner later that night. Bui's cinematic illustrations make use of panels and weighted lines, evoking the perfect background or facial expression for each piece of text. The text placement and composition of the illustrations allow each occurrence or observation to be its own distinct event, stringing together the small, discrete moments that make up a life, a memory, and a history into a cohesive whole. VERDICT This gentle coming-of-age story is filled with loving, important aspects of the immigrant experience and is a first purchase for all libraries.Anna Haase Krueger, Ramsey County Library, MN

Horn Book (Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

Hours before sunrise, a Vietnamese American father and son go fishing for that night's meal. This powerfully understated picture book shifts the usual focus of the refugee narrative to the reality awaiting a family once they reach their destination. With evocative detail and a keen ear for metaphor, Phi hints at the family's joys and struggles. Bui sets the mood with expressive brushwork and alternating colors for home and outside.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

A fishing trip is not just a fishing trip in this poignant, semiautobiographical tale. As a young boy growing up in a Vietnamese refugee family in Minneapolis, Phi would wake up "hours before the sun comes up" to go fishing with his dad. Right from the start, he hints at his family's dire straits: "In the kitchen the bare bulb is burning." Readers learn they are up so early because his dad got a second job. And Phi asks innocently, "If you got another job, why do we still have to fish for food?" At the pond, father and son share moments of tenderness. A nod here—when Phi lights a fire with one strike of a match; a warning there—to avoid "the spicy stuff" in his bologna sandwich. Father and son also bond through stories. "I used to fish by a pond like this one when I was a boy in Vietnam," says Dad. "With your brother?" Phi asks. Dad nods and looks away, a clue to the unspeakable devastation of the war. When they catch enough fish for dinner they head home, Phi dreaming about the landscape of Dad's home country. Together, Phi's gentle, melodic prose and Bui's evocative art, presented in brushy and vividly colored panels and double-page spreads, rise above the melancholy to tell a powerful, multilayered story about family, memory, and the costs of becoming a refugee. Spare and simple, a must-read for our times. (Picture book. 5-9)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Phi, a poet whose parents were Vietnamese refugees, draws from childhood memories in this story about fishing with his father before sunrise on the lakes of Minneapolis. They didn-t do it for fun; it was a way to put food on the table. -Everything in America costs a lot of money,- his father tells him. Sometimes, they run into fishermen from other marginalized communities: a Hmong man -speaks English like my dad and likes to talk about funny movies,- and a black man -shows me his colorful lure collection.- Though the morning is an adventure for the boy, it-s the start of a long day for his father, who heads to work afterward (as does the boy-s mother). Bui (The Best We Could Do) uses confident ink lines and watery washes of deep blue to evoke the predawn setting and tender familial relationship. Graphic novel panels and strong figures give the pages the air of a documentary as Phi celebrates an unexpected superhero: a father who endures a strange new culture, works to support his family, cherishes time with his son, and draws no attention to the sacrifices he-s made. Ages 6-8. (Aug.)