The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

Pak, Soyung

A Place to Grow

32 pp. | Scholastic/Levine | September, 2002 | Trade ISBN 0-439-13015-8 $$16.95

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Marcelino Truong. As a girl and her father make a garden, he presents it as a metaphor for their life: like a seed blown by the wind, they had to fly far to find a safe place to "grow into our family." Scenes of the garden, in a European village rendered in an Impressionist palette, alternate with those in somber hues depicting the family's journey from their homeland. Both the lyrical language and the parent-child interaction are gentle and reassuring.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2003