Books at Bedtime: Dear Juno
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
I still remember receiving a few letters as a child from my godfather’s mother in Uruguay: letters just to me, written on gossamer-thin airmail paper and each with a tiny, brightly-colored feather attached to it. So Dear Juno by Korean author Soyung Pak and illustrated by Susan Kathleen Hartung (Puffin Books, 2001) certainly resonated with me and sparked the imagination of Older and Little Brother when we picked it up recently.
Juno and his parents live in the US and he can’t read the letters his grandmother sends him in Korean -but he can still understand them before they are read aloud to him because of the extra things his grandmother includes with the letters, like photographs or a dried flower from her garden. Juno realises that his grandmother would like to hear from him too and sends her “letters” made up of a leaf from his special tree and drawings. It’s a wonderful way to communicate and does away with the distance and language differences – and just like in the story, young listeners can pick out what is being communicated through the delightful illustrations. There is also something particularly appealing about Juno wondering aloud to Sam, his dog, if Grandmother will bring her cat with her when she comes to visit… My adult mind was immediately filled with logistical nightmares and immigration/quarantine issues: but, of course, my two young listeners took it in their stride and discussed instead the very real possibility of a cat and dog getting along!
Soyung Pak received the 2000 New-Writer Ezra Jack Keats Award. Running an eye down the list of winners past and present throws up a number of books we have loved and highlighted on PaperTigers: and plenty of inspiration for future reading…
I have not come across Ezra Jack Keats before (more…)
