Journey Home

By Lawrence McKay Jr., Dom Lee, Keunhee Lee
Paperback: $10.95

A biracial girl gains a new sense of identity when she travels to Vietnam with her mother.

Description

Mai is excited about traveling to Vietnam with her mother. Mom wants to search for her birth family and Mai wants to help solve the mystery.

Mai has never been to her mother’s homeland, and she wonders what being there will reveal. Will learning about her mother’s past help her gain a new sense of identity? Is her “real” home in America or Vietnam?

What Mai discovers about her past will change her life forever. Journey Home is a story for all Americans who, like Mai, want to learn more about themselves through their family histories.

About the Creators

Lawrence McKay Jr.

Lawrence McKay is the author of Caravan, which was a Bank Street College Children's Book of the Year selection. He lives in Vermont with his wife and their two children.

Dom Lee

Dom Lee made his picture-book debut with Baseball Saved Us. He grew up in Seoul, South Korea, and went on to illustrate books in both the United States and Korea. His titles for Lee & Low include Ken Mochizuki's Passage to Freedom and Heroes, as well as the award-winning Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds. Lee's unique illustration style involves applying encaustic beeswax on paper, then scratching out images, and finally coloring the images with oil paint. Lee and his wife live in Hollis, New York.

Keunhee Lee

Keunhee Lee is a contributing illustrator for America: My Land, Your Land, Our Land. Dom and Keunhee Lee live in Demarest, New Jersey, with their two children.

Awards

  • Best Children's Books of the Year

    Bank Street College of Education

  • CCBC Choices

    Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

  • Outstanding Title

    Parent Council, Ltd.

Reviews

  • "Subdued and affecting. . . The Lees' realistic art, by turns brightly lighted and almost oppressively dark, seamlessly matches the changing moods of the text. [W]ill engage anyone interested in Vietnam or adoption."

    - Publishers Weekly

  • "[E]normously touching book"

    - Kirkus Reviews

  • "Like Allen Say's Grandfather's Journey (1993), this will encourage readers to ask about their own family stories of the journey home."

    - Booklist

  • "Appeal[s]. . . because of its ultimate truths about family and home."

    - Hungry Mind Review

Paperback

  • ISBN 9781584300052
  • Price $10.95
  • Publication Date Apr 01, 1998
  • Trim Size 8.75 × 9 × 1 in
  • Weight 0.375 lbs
  • Page Count 32
  • Word Count 1805

    • Hardcover

  • ISBN 9781880000656
  • Price $16.95
  • Publication Date Apr 01, 1998
  • Trim Size N/A
  • Weight 0.4375 lbs
  • Page Count 32
  • Word Count 1805

    • Interests

  • Imprint Lee & Low Books
  • Audience Children
  • BISAC Category 1 JUV / Family / Adoption
  • BISAC Category 2 JUV / Historical / Asia
  • BISAC Category 3 JUV / Social Themes / General
  • Themes Adoption, Asian / Asian American / AAPI, Biracial / Multiracial, Childhood Experiences and Memories, Cultural Diversity, Empathy / Compassion, Families, Fiction, Friendship, Home, Identity / Self Esteem / Confidence, Immigration, Mothers, Multiple Ethnicities Represented, People In Motion, Realistic Fiction, Similarities and Differences

    • Reading Levels

  • Age Range Ages 6 - 10
  • Grade Range Grades 1 - 5
  • Guided Reading Q
  • ATOS Book Level 3.8
  • DRA 40
  • Interest Level Grades 1 - 5
  • Lexile Level 710
  • Lexile Measurement 710L
  • Reading Level Grades 2 - 3
  • SRC 3.5
  • Bebop Reading Fluent

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