{"id":40190,"date":"2016-01-07T10:33:58","date_gmt":"2016-01-07T15:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=40190"},"modified":"2016-01-07T11:30:37","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T16:30:37","slug":"the-only-child-by-guojing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-only-child-by-guojing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Only Child by Guojing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/01\/Only-Child-by-Guojing-on-BookDragon.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-40183\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/01\/Only-Child-by-Guojing-on-BookDragon-573x800.jpg\" alt=\"Only Child by Guojing on BookDragon\" width=\"573\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/01\/Only-Child-by-Guojing-on-BookDragon-573x800.jpg 573w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/01\/Only-Child-by-Guojing-on-BookDragon.jpg 635w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 573px) 100vw, 573px\" \/><\/a>The single-page &#8220;author&#8217;s note&#8221; which introduces this stupendous, otherwise-wordless wonder is a full story unto itself: <a href=\"http:\/\/guojingart.tumblr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Guojing<\/a> reveals her lonely childhood growing up in 1980s China under the one-child policy. Her parents worked, and she was often cared for by her grandmother. But sometimes when adults were just not available, she was left all alone. &#8220;This experience was common in many families at that time,&#8221; she explains. &#8220;I belonged to a very lonely generation of children.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At age 6, Guojing&#8217;s father put her on a bus to her grandmother&#8217;s \u2013 to travel there on her own. She fell asleep, woke to an almost empty bus, got off in a panic, and somehow found her way to safety.<\/p>\n<p>That defining event is the basis for this magnificent graphic debut, in which words prove\u00a0superfluous. While home alone, the eponymous &#8216;only child&#8217; exhausts all her favorite activities; she\u00a0bundles up in multiple layers, ventures out in the snow, and boards a bus that she hopes will take her to her grandmother. But sleep takes her somewhere else, and she finds herself in a distant forest with no one to hear her cries. As she wipes her tears, a majestic stag appears and leads her to a sanctuary high in the clouds.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, her parents have returned to an empty home to find a left-behind note, &#8220;Gone to see grandma,&#8221; in the most achingly childish handwriting\u00a0\u2013 and their panicked search begins. By book&#8217;s end, magic will have happened, a family will be reunited, and a\u00a0precious only child protected once more in slumberland.<\/p>\n<p>In sepia-toned, elegantly muted, intricately detailed sketches, Guojing channels memory, bittersweet reality, enchantment, worry, imagination, and awe\u00a0to create a mesmerizing\u00a0volume of utter perfection. Even beyond the exquisite pages, the story&#8217;s impact lingers and inspires\u00a0\u2013 for anyone who has ever felt estranged and isolated (haven&#8217;t we all?), Guojing offers hope: &#8220;I&#8217;ve realized it is easy to become lost, but if I look hard enough, there is always a path\u00a0&#8230;\u00a0guiding the way back home.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Children<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2015<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The single-page &#8220;author&#8217;s note&#8221; which introduces this stupendous, otherwise-wordless wonder is a full story unto itself: Guojing reveals her lonely childhood growing up in 1980s China under the one-child policy. Her parents worked, and she was often cared for by her grandmother. But sometimes when&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,62,67,6,73],"tags":[6608,10,135,6822,129,6821,39,64,35],"class_list":["post-40190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-absolute-favorites","category-children-picture-books","category-chinese","category-fiction","category-graphic-novel-manga-manwha","tag-bookdragon","tag-family","tag-grandparents","tag-guojing","tag-mother-daughter-relationship","tag-only-child","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-pets-animals","tag-speculative-fantasy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Only Child by Guojing - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-only-child-by-guojing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Only Child by Guojing - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The single-page &#8220;author&#8217;s note&#8221; which introduces this stupendous, otherwise-wordless wonder is a full story unto itself: Guojing reveals her lonely childhood growing up in 1980s China under the one-child policy. Her parents worked, and she was often cared for by her grandmother. 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