Henry Holt & Co./Godwin Books | 978-1250778185
Dandan is moving an ocean away. She and her best friend, Yueyue, have one last night – Lunar New Year’s Eve – before the long journey from China to America. As the girls savor Nanai’s dumplings, her stories chime in their ears. Then…
“When the grown-ups start their card game,
Yueyue pokes me. She and I have our own
New Year’s Eve tradition.
We pleat red papers,
zigzag our scissors, and unfold.”
The girls make their best snowflakes, slip them into thin metal plates filled with water, and stretch string across them. Outside, their plates wait for the freezing air to turn their paper creations into icy ornaments.
“Our best snowflakes yet,” Yueyue says.
She gives Dandan a stack of red paper and a spool of string so she can make cutouts with a new friend in America.
“Friends are friends, forever.”
CLICK TO ENLARGE © Illustration by Lynn Scurfield
But there’s much for Dandan to learn in her new home. The culture is different. And so is the language. “I race to learn a hundred words a day. Sometimes I get ten, sometimes only three.”
The students are not always kind. When Dandan wears a special red satin dress on her birthday, most of her classmates snicker. But one – Christina – reaches out and, over time, Dandan’s “voice blooms.”
CLICK TO ENLARGE © Illustration by Lynn Scurfield
This tender story by debut author Dane Liu, is based on her own childhood immigration experience of moving Changchun, China to the US in her teens.
FRIENDS ARE FRIENDS, FOREVER beautifully illustrated by Lynn Scurfield explores the gift and power of friendship.
- Enjoy this VIDEO of the author and illustrator reading and talking about the process of writing and illustrating their book.
