Name: The Paper Boat
Author: Thao Lam
ISBN: 9781771473637

Published:

Sep-2020 (Hardcover)
Formats:

Print
Main Genre:

General Fiction
Pages:

40
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New from Thao Lam, the award-winning author of picture books My Cat Looks Like My Dad, Wallpaper, and Skunk on a String, comes a personal story inspired by her family's refugee journey.

In The Paper Boat, Thao's signature collage art tells the wordless story of one family's escape from Vietnamâ�,�•a journey intertwined with an ant colony's parallel narrative.

At her home in Vietnam, a girl rescues ants from the sugar water set out to trap them. Later, when the girl's family flees war-torn Vietnam, ants lead them through the moonlit jungle to the boat that will take them to safety. Before boarding, the girl folds a paper boat from a bun wrapper and drops it into the water, and the ants climb on. Their perilous journey, besieged by punishing weather, predatory birds, and dehydration, before reaching a new beginning, mirrors the family's own.

Impressionistic collages and a moving, Own Voices narrative make this a one-of-a-kind tale of courage, resilience, and hope.