Book Review of 'The Paper Boat: A Refugee Story', AKA the FIRST ARC from Net Galley
This is my first official review of an ARC I've been approved for on Net Galley. If you don't know what Net Galley is or would like to know how to get started reviewing books on Net Galley, please let me know and I'll find an actual influencer who has more experience and a more thorough understanding of the platform, lol!
Okay, let's get into this review of The Paper Boat: A Refugee Story by Thao Lam!
Lam’s story The Paper Boat: A Refugee Story incorporates collages to show readers a moving refugee story as one family escapes from Vietnam after the country has been ravaged by war.
The front and end matter of the book contain illustrations of newspapers
that chronologically document the events of the Vietnam War. With the exception
of the author’s note at the end of the book these front page newspaper articles
are the only text in the story. For readers who don’t know about the Vietnam
War, the headlines help provide context for the story.
Lam’s artwork is beautifully crafted and the predominantly contrasting
light and dark colour scheme of white, black and greys reminds readers that
this tale includes both emotionally dark and bright, hopeful subject matter.
The parallel storylines of the Vietnamese family and the ants leaving on boats
was nicely done, especially since Lam provides insight about how ants live and
function as a colony and shares her family’s experiences to highlight the
relevance of ants to Lam’s maternal history.
I think that this book would be fantastic for young children who aren’t
able to read yet, youngsters who are visual learners or creative kids who would
enjoy creating a narrative to accompany Lam’s artwork. For teachers, you could
use this story book as a basis for reading and writing activities in which
students can write an accompanying narrative for the artwork, or determine (chronological)
sequencing. It could also be the inspiration for an art class where students create
their own collages/collage stories.
Please support independent and local bookstores. If that's not possible, here is the link to Indigo: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/the-paper-boat-a-refugee/9781771473637-item.html?ikwid=the+boat+people%3a+a+refugee+story&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0#algoliaQueryId=ce71eec8b83b1a4830889076535888a3)
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