Starred Review ALA Booklist (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

Starred Review This picture book brilliantly conveys how terrifying and confusing it can be to adapt to a strange country and how much even one person's acts of kindness can help. It centers on one schoolday in the life of an Asian boy named Dat, newly arrived in the U.S. after an arduous journey. The illustrations, done in colored pencils, watercolors, and mixed media, contrast Dat and his mother with the bizarre inhabitants of this new world: everything and everyone except Dat and his mother are gray and misshapen; the other school kids are grotesque, blobby cartoon characters (think Monsters, Inc.); and worst of all, Dat can't understand a single word of English, spoken or written. It's all gibberish to him, rendered on the page in heavily outlined strings of emojis. One of the blobs, a little girl, plays with Dat at recess. Later, she sits next to him on the school bus and draws for him, sounding out the words duck, boat, frog, flower. Breakthrough! Dat hears words in English, and when he and the girl exit the bus, the world itself has changed from bizarre back to normal, with everyone looking human. This is a story that will give hope to kids dealing with a new country and could inspire others to reach out to struggling immigrant children.

Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

A boy begins school in a new country where everyone speaks gibberish.Poignant front pages set the scene as a tiny woman and boy set sail from a tropical land and an airplane flies from a colorful landscape into a dulling gray sky. The story thus begins in a new grayscale landscape where only Dat, an Asian-featured boy, and his mother are in full color as he heads off to school. Vo ingeniously makes everything about this new environment feel foreign and surreal: the palette, the bulbous vehicles, and especially the wacky 1940s-style cartoon figures Dat encounters who speak in unintelligible icons inside speech bubbles (and repeatedly get his name wrong). Cartoon classmates are various types of humanoid creatures-some one-eyed, some horned-with large, expressive googly eyes, while Dat is finely drawn in realistic color, his facial expressions perfectly conveying his struggles with this new culture and language. But then one of his classmates engages with him. The two realize they can communicate and share English words through drawings, and as their bond blossoms, the new friend gains pale-skinned color, realistic form, and a name: Julie. Vo's use of color and style as metaphors is not new, but the execution is stellar, creating a viscerally uncomfortable experience while also infusing the narrative with humor throughout. (This book was reviewed digitally.)A visually and emotionally immersive immigration story. (Picture book. 4-8)

Horn Book (Mon Feb 06 00:00:00 CST 2023)

Dat, the young Asian protagonist of this involving picture book, has traveled far to reach his new country and is about to start his first day of school. His mother warns, "When people speak it will sound like gibberish," and encourages him to listen and do the best he can. Dat eagerly dives in, but he is quickly overwhelmed by the constant barrage of incomprehensible babble "in his books and in the air." In the schoolyard, he is surprised by one of his classmates, who is also taking a moment apart from the group. She grabs him by the hand and shows him how to seesaw and jump rope (the international language of child's play!). Back in class, the interminable day drags on, but on the bus ride home, the girl reappears. She pulls out paper and markers, and they begin to draw together. Vo, who was himself a child refugee from Vietnam, does a brilliant job of conveying the disorientation and alienation that children face in these situations, and does so as much with his mixed-media and digital art as he does with his spare text. Dat is depicted as a vibrant, fully realized, full-color figure, who is thrust into a black-and-white world filled with exaggerated and sometimes surreal cartoon monsters. The "gibberish" appears as lengthy strings of emoji-like drawings, with each letter of the alphabet having a distinct icon. A creative and effective dramatization of the plight of new language learners. Luann Toth

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

A boy begins school in a new country where everyone speaks gibberish.Poignant front pages set the scene as a tiny woman and boy set sail from a tropical land and an airplane flies from a colorful landscape into a dulling gray sky. The story thus begins in a new grayscale landscape where only Dat, an Asian-featured boy, and his mother are in full color as he heads off to school. Vo ingeniously makes everything about this new environment feel foreign and surreal: the palette, the bulbous vehicles, and especially the wacky 1940s-style cartoon figures Dat encounters who speak in unintelligible icons inside speech bubbles (and repeatedly get his name wrong). Cartoon classmates are various types of humanoid creatures-some one-eyed, some horned-with large, expressive googly eyes, while Dat is finely drawn in realistic color, his facial expressions perfectly conveying his struggles with this new culture and language. But then one of his classmates engages with him. The two realize they can communicate and share English words through drawings, and as their bond blossoms, the new friend gains pale-skinned color, realistic form, and a name: Julie. Vo's use of color and style as metaphors is not new, but the execution is stellar, creating a viscerally uncomfortable experience while also infusing the narrative with humor throughout. (This book was reviewed digitally.)A visually and emotionally immersive immigration story. (Picture book. 4-8)

School Library Journal (Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 CST 2022)

K-Gr 2 A young boy named Dat and his mah travel to a new country. As Dat prepares for his first day of school, Mah explains that when the people around him speak, the words will "sound like gibberish," and that he should listen and do the best that he can. Throughout Dat's day, he struggles to understand his bus driver, teacher, and classmates. He spends the majority of his day alone, until "someone unexpected" reaches out to him, first on the playground, and then again on the bus ride home. This new character, who readers soon learn is named Julie, extends a warm invitation of friendship to Dat, who eventually begins to "hear words" instead of gibberish. Vo's heartwarming immigration story is beautifully told, with multimedia illustrations that shine on each spread. For instance, when Dat first arrives at school, his classroom and fellow students are all portrayed in a black and white, cartoonish way, and the unfamiliar language depicted as unintelligible symbols. However, when Julie takes the time to communicate with him in a new way, the symbols become words and the black and white scenes transition to color. Pair with Debora Pearson's My Words Flew Away Like Birds , and Jacqueline Woodson's The Day You Begin for fruitful discussions on empathy, friendship, and feelings of otherness. VERDICT This uplifting story is a welcome addition to any collection. Olivia Gorecke