Amy Wu and the Warm Welcome

I really love the Amy Wu book series by Kat Zhang and illustrated by Charlene Chua. My daughter and I have made and bonded over the bao recipe in Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao, and celebrated as Amy made her own perfect version of a dragon in Amy Wu and the Patchwork Dragon. Today I brought home the latest in the series from the public library, Amy Wu and the Warm Welcome.

It tells the story of new student Lin, who is joining Amy's class from China. Amy and her classmates want to give Lin a warm welcome, but he won't seem to open up to anyone. Then Amy sees a different side of Lin come out when he is able to speak in Chinese with his little sister after school. Amy, who does not speak Chinese, asks her grandmother for help to learn some Chinese words she can use to welcome Lin in the language he understands best. I love that this book helps to de-center English as the default language, provides really positive images of Asian people and shows our young ones how we can be effective, thoughtful and sensitive people! Amy could have been sad, dejected or even angry that Lin seemed to be unresponsive to her attempts at making him feel welcome. Instead, she empathizes with him and stretches beyond her own comfort zone to do something that would truly speak to him (pun intended).

The illustrations are also so wonderful - not making caricatures of anyone, with a diverse representation with Amy's class, including a young girl with a hearing aid. The students are seen eating different lunches - Lin even uses chopsticks without anyone mocking him or getting in his face about it - how I wish I had the courage and social liberty to use chopsticks at school when I was that age! I digress... Another thing I love is that Amy's grandma's hair is dyed pink. Oh if I could tell you all the funky colours my own mother has dyed her hair! I don't know whether this is an "Asian thing" or not - but this is something I 100% related with upon seeing it! She's let it go grey for many years now... but if you go through our family photo albums, you will see some fu-unky hair colours!

If you are a parent or caregiver that wants to read this book with young ones, here are some suggested conversation points you can use as you read below. Remember to give time and space for your young ones to think and answer, if they wish to!

• "Can you imagine being new to a class? I wonder how you might feel? How do you think Lin is feeling?"

• "Did you know when you move to a new country, you are called an immigrant? Lin and his family have immigrated to a new place. Lots of people immigrate every day!"

• Pointing to the hearing aid - "Have you seen someone wearing one of these before? It is called a hearing aid. What do you think this might do?" Follow up by explaining what a hearing aid is.

• "I wonder why Lin isn't saying anything to anyone?"

• When Lin starts to chat with his sister - "This is a different side to Lin! Do you have any ideas now why he wasn't saying anything to Amy all day?"

• "Amy and her classmates were speaking to Lin in a language called English. He is new to her school from a place called China, and he may not know English. It seems like he only knows a language called Chinese right now. I wonder how that might feel, not knowing what anyone was saying? Or if you were talking but no one understood the language you were speaking?"

• When Amy is nervous to speak Chinese - "Why do you think Amy is now the one nervous to speak? It seems like she is feeling nervous in the same way Lin was nervous at school."

• "It is so great Amy and Lin can still enjoy a meal together even if they don't speak the same language. They don't need to say anything, but they can still spend time together and have fun!"

After they've had a chance to think and answer any questions you pose, adults can always add their thoughts, too! Sometimes kids don't have the words to put to their thoughts. By answering your own questions, you can model these strategies and give them the words to express their thoughts.

Above and beyond: after reading, you could research how hearing aids work, look on a map to see where China is located and do some research about the country, and/or talk about where your family immigrated from (if applicable) and how long ago that happened.