Almost Canadian

Recently I received the book A Garden Called Home by Jessica L. Lee and Elaine Chen for free from Tundra Books. As is often the case when you get free things, the giver likes to hear what you think about the free thing. So here it is, my honest review.

The book A Garden Called Home by Jessica L. Lee and Elaine Chen is sweet, simple, and effective. As the inside cover says, the book follows a girl and her mother who live in Canada on a trip to Taiwan, where the mother is from. In Taiwan, the mother explores the outdoors and excitedly teaches her daughter about the plants and the landscape. When they return to Canada, however, she withdraws again and avoids going outside. The daughter takes it into her own hands to show her mother how beautiful nature can be, no matter where you are.

There are just so many good things here. One, it touches on the immigrant experience and how difficult it is to leave your country for another, one that is completely different. It’s not just the language and the culture that changes—it’s climate and plants and the landscape and all the things that make up outside. Even for people not moving countries and just moving, say, states, it can be difficult to adjust to new areas (though, of course, immigration is much more difficult than this for so many reasons like the aforementioned change in culture and language, plus the sheer distance and politics and more). I was just reflecting recently how much I miss living in New York (the almost Canada part, hence the name of this blog) and having access to beautiful woodlands. It helped me a lot to remember some of the beautiful plants where I live now in the Midwest—namely, redbuds. Connecting with nature builds a connection with place. (This reminds me of a book I read most of, Being and Place Among the Tlingit by Thomas F. Thornton. I would love to get into more discussion about this but that is beyond the scope of this review.)

That brings me to the second big thing I like about the book: the focus on nature. People should be going outside and learning about the plants and animals around them, as well as the history and folklore of the area. This builds connection with the world and with the place, as previously stated, and I would argue that this connection builds a stronger sense of purpose in life.

What else? The focus on family relationships is great, as is teaching specific plants. Oh, and the art is also beautiful and vibrant, and the little girl has a great sense of style. Overall, a good book.