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A review by saidtheraina
Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai
5.0
When I was a kid, growing up in the northwest corner of amerika, Australia seemed like the most exciting, alluring place in the world to visit. Was that true for you? Or was it just me?
Pie in the Sky is about Jingwen, a kid who moves to Australia. He moves there with his brother and his mom, but this book is completely in his head & from his perspective. As such, the author includes illustrations intermittently within the text (Diary of a Wimpy Kid style), which are sometimes apparently realistic, and other times very much the product of Jingwen's feelings and daydreams and thoughts about the world surrounding him.
Using the mechanism of illustrations, Lai vividly introduces Jingwen's idea that he's moved to a land of aliens. He struggles with the culture, social interactions, and most of all, the language.
Being in such a foreign environment forces Jingwen to spend a lot of time with his brother, which is also a source of frustration. Their mother is working nights, so Jingwen is left alone with Yanghao a lot.
Jingwen's father's plan had been to set up a cake shop in Australia. They'd had a cake shop where they'd moved from (where exactly that was is never specified explicitly). So now, Jingwen and his brother start making cakes at night.
There is a LOT going on in this book. Immigration, baking, learning a second language, grief, sibling relationships, outsiders & insiders, cultural norms....
But the book has an overall, rather surprising, sense of lightness to it. A lot of that can be chalked up to the expressive, cartoony illustrations. And the characters really grab you, as well.
It was a joy to read, and I'm pushing for it to be included on our school district's Battle of the Books list for 2020-2021 (one extra-curricular that can Totally still happen, even if we're all still doing virtual learning!). Giving it five for the unique combination of elements - I've never read anything quite like this before.
Pie in the Sky is about Jingwen, a kid who moves to Australia. He moves there with his brother and his mom, but this book is completely in his head & from his perspective. As such, the author includes illustrations intermittently within the text (Diary of a Wimpy Kid style), which are sometimes apparently realistic, and other times very much the product of Jingwen's feelings and daydreams and thoughts about the world surrounding him.
Using the mechanism of illustrations, Lai vividly introduces Jingwen's idea that he's moved to a land of aliens. He struggles with the culture, social interactions, and most of all, the language.
Being in such a foreign environment forces Jingwen to spend a lot of time with his brother, which is also a source of frustration. Their mother is working nights, so Jingwen is left alone with Yanghao a lot.
Jingwen's father's plan had been to set up a cake shop in Australia. They'd had a cake shop where they'd moved from (where exactly that was is never specified explicitly). So now, Jingwen and his brother start making cakes at night.
There is a LOT going on in this book. Immigration, baking, learning a second language, grief, sibling relationships, outsiders & insiders, cultural norms....
But the book has an overall, rather surprising, sense of lightness to it. A lot of that can be chalked up to the expressive, cartoony illustrations. And the characters really grab you, as well.
It was a joy to read, and I'm pushing for it to be included on our school district's Battle of the Books list for 2020-2021 (one extra-curricular that can Totally still happen, even if we're all still doing virtual learning!). Giving it five for the unique combination of elements - I've never read anything quite like this before.