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Pie in the Sky
CCBC Review:
Jingwen, his little brother Yanghao, and their mother are recent immigrants to Australia (probably from China, although it’s never specified). Their father was killed in a car accident two years earlier. Jingwen misses baking with his father, who dreamed of opening a bakery in Australia called Pie in the Sky. Frustrated with his inability to learn English, and struggling to make friends at school, Jingwen focuses instead on secretly recreating the cakes he and his dad used to bake together, one each evening with Yanghao when their mother is away at work. Although Yanghao is happy to devour as much cake as possible each night, he eventually shares some with a neighbor, an act that leads to the unraveling of their secret baking sessions and the revelation that Jingwen is harboring guilt over his belittlement of the humble cakes his father made in their bakery back home. A graphic/fiction hybrid, this is a compelling and emotionally complex story about starting over in a new country. At its heart lies Jingwen’s relationship with Yanghao, who provides both comic relief and a stable (if annoying) presence in his life when everything else feels foreign. ©2020 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
Illustrated by Remy Lai
CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 8-12
Age Range:
Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10)
Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Format:
Novel
Subjects:
Brothers
English Language Learners
Food and Cooking
Friendship
Grief and Loss
Humor
Immigration and Immigrants
Diversity subject:
Asian
Publisher:
Henry Holt
Publish Year: 2019
Pages: 384
ISBN: 9781250314109
CCBC Location: Fiction, Lai
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