01 Feb / Amah Faraway by Margaret Chiu Greanias, illustrated by Tracy Subisak [in Shelf Awareness]
*STARRED REVIEW
Margaret Chiu Greanias’s inviting Amah Faraway is a heartfelt homage to her Taiwanese heritage that binds multiple generations on either side of the globe. Tracy Subisak (illustrator of Shawn Loves Sharks) elevates the familiar bicultural narrative with vivacious multimedia illustrations.
Kylie of San Francisco and Amah of Taipei “didn’t visit each other often enough,” but Saturday video chats connected granddaughter and grandmother through stories, songs, and speaking “simply and slowly.” Kylie, en route to a real-life reunion, can’t help complaining to Mama: “GROAN. Why do we have to go?! It’s SO. FAR. AWAY!” When she finally arrives in Taipei, everything seems “strange” – Amah’s apartment, so many relatives, the food, the city’s parks and markets. With Mama’s encouragement and Amah’s patience and adventurous lead, Kylie eventually changes from reluctant observer to delighted participant.
Greanius (Maximillian Villainous) has created charming bilingual text – the English enhanced with occasional Chinese characters and phonetic transcriptions – that is also an ingenious example of changing perspectives. Halfway through the story, Kylie’s hesitant “Should she? Could she?” transforms with a mere punctuation adjustment into “She could! She should!” The book’s second half becomes a mirrored repeat of the first half’s text, but Kylie and Amah swap places, with Kylie as instigator and Amah her happy enabler. Throughout her bright pages, Subsiak cleverly underscores Kylie’s readiness to partake with open-mouthed shouts of joy, animated conversations, and a hungry appetite. Greanias’s informative back matter also appends a list of Taipei sites and Taiwanese foods (including dishes that have meaning such as uncut noodles signifying long life). From beginning to close, both author and artist proudly celebrate their Taiwanese roots.
Discover: Margaret Chiu Greanias and Tracy Subisak delightfully, inventively present a hesitant child’s transformative reunion with her Taiwanese grandmother on the other side of the world.
Review: “Children’s & Young Adult,” Shelf Awareness, February 1, 2022
Readers: Children
Published: 2022