K-Gr 4—In this moving debut, Marwan pares immigration to its elements—family, loss, and acceptance—conveying
it in delicate but lively watercolor and line. Much of the profound appeal of this book comes from the art. Thin
expressive lines define spaces of cool color, with touches of plum and black, against gentle washes floating free.

This story about immigration makes hardly any sense until you read the four pages of text at the end explaining what you just read. I'm sorry, but for me that is a picture book fail.

(Another project! I'm trying to read all the picture books and graphic novels on the kids section of NPR's Books We Love 2022.) ( )

Beautiful book with great artwork and a family story. ( )

Beautifully told and illustrated; story is easily seen as the story a child would experience ( )

Charming watercolor and ink pictures by the author/illustrator accompany this story about Marwan’s childhood, when she and her family left Kuwait and moved to New Mexico. She loved her home and didn’t understand why they had to leave.

Indeed, it remains unclear to readers as well until the author explains in her afterword about the complicated citizenship problem of many in Kuwait that leaves them with virtually no rights.

There are an estimated 100,000 - 200,000 people in Kuwait known as “Bidoons” (meaning “without” in Arabic) who were excluded from obtaining citizenship when Kuwait first undertook efforts to register its population following independence in 1961. Many of them were either unaware or unable to register at the time. Thus, according to the online magazine TRTWorld, the Kuwaiti government considers them illegal residents on its territory.

TRTWorld explains that Bidoons fall into three broad categories: those whose ancestors failed to apply for nationality or lacked the necessary documents at Kuwaiti independence; those recruited from abroad (like Iraq, Syria, and Jordan) to work in the Kuwaiti army or police during the 1960s; and children of Kuwaiti mothers and stateless or foreign fathers.

Marwan’s family fell into the latter group. Her parents, she wrote, saw no future for their children and so they immigrated to New Mexico “with broken hearts - but also the hope of securing us our basic human rights and the ability to pursue happy lives.”

She loved Kuwait, “where one hundred butterflies are always in the sky,” her ancestors watched over her, and “my aunties hold me close.” [In the back matter she writes that spring migration indeed brings scores of butterflies to the country.]

As she explains, New Mexico was a good choice for them, in part because so many of their new neighbors had strong Indigenous and Hispano roots and had been subject to cultural oppression themselves. They showed her family that they belonged. She ends, “. . . in this new place of high desert, I have found a home.”

And like the sky being filled with beautiful butterflies in Kuwait, in October in New Mexico the skies are filled with beautiful colorful balloons.

The playful illustrations combine realism and imagination in a way that show how a child thinks.

Evaluation: Some of the story told in this book for ages 8 and over may confuse readers until they read the back matter, but the message is still clear of the disruption of having to leave one’s home; of not understanding it because you are a child; and of coming to adjust to, and even love, the new place you live. The change from butterflies to balloons indicates there will be something similar and miraculous to love no matter where you are. ( )