On the title page a pale-skinned adult clothed in colorful garb stands among a grayscale forest. As the main text starts, the adult\u2014now aged but wearing a similar outfit\u2014walks with a youngster, apparently a grandchild. Observing and enjoying the vibrant, lush natural world around them, the narrator reflects on the different places the family has hailed from and paths they\u2019ve taken \u201cin search of the perfect place \/ To put down our roots \/ And call home.\u201d Over a few page turns, the child (revealed to be the book\u2019s narrator) has grown to adulthood and, donning the elder\u2019s satchel, explores the forest with the next generation. \u201cI grew here. \/\/ This is my community.\u201d As the narrator\u2019s children (who present East Asian, like the narrator) swing among the trees and explore the forest, our narrator considers the past, present, and future. With spare but lyrical text, Awan\u2019s story celebrates a forest\u2019s transformation and that of a family over generations. Jomepour Bell\u2019s careful illustrations reveal the passage of time: what has changed (a single fox seen earlier eventually is depicted with two kits, a butterfly emerges from its chrysalis) and what remains: home and the vibrancy of the forest. The bright visual details reinforce the themes of belonging and time and reward attentive reading.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On the title page a pale-skinned adult clothed in colorful garb stands among a grayscale forest. As the main text starts, the adult\u2014now aged but wearing a similar outfit\u2014walks with a youngster, apparently a grandchild. Observing and enjoying the vibrant, lush natural world around them, the narrator reflects on the different places the family has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5903"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}