The Paper Boat · A Refugee Story
- Authors
- Lam, Thao
- Publisher
- Owlkids
- Tags
- childrens , social themes , juvenile fiction , historical , war , asia , history , family , multigenerational , inspirational , emigration & immigration
- ISBN
- 9781771473637
- Date
- 2020-09-15T00:00:00+00:00
- Size
- 6.93 MB
- Lang
- en
In The Paper Boat, Thao’s signature collage art tells the wordless story of one family’s escape from Vietnam―a journey intertwined with an ant colony’s parallel narrative.
At her home in Vietnam, a girl rescues ants from the sugar water set out to trap them. Later, when the girl’s family flees war-torn Vietnam, ants lead them through the moonlit jungle to the boat that will take them to safety. Before boarding, the girl folds a paper boat from a bun wrapper and drops it into the water, and the ants climb on. Their perilous journey, besieged by punishing weather, predatory birds, and dehydration, before reaching a new beginning, mirrors the family’s own.
Impressionistic collages and a moving, Own Voices narrative make this a one-of-a-kind tale of courage, resilience, and hope.