When I get on a browsing spree, I find myself down so many rabbit holes, I twist my brain. This means, I will find something I like the looks and/or sound of and find a copy. But when I do finally get the copy, I forget why it drew me in. So it is a wonderful surprise. This happened with My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder by Nie Jun and Edward Gauvin (author/illustrator and translator respectively). In the end, the reason I wanted to read wasn’t important, but the results were. It was fun. It was sweet, silly, clever, and cute. It was also bitter sweet with two of the stories. This book is a graphic novel, but also a picture book and an illustrated novel for at least the third/fourth grade and up crowd. It is four stories about a girl and her grandfather. It is fairly modern, but still feels a bit dated.
Our two main characters are a girl who is mostly unable to walk (but can do a little with a cane), and her grandfather (a big, ol’ (I say with love) toad-like, loveable goof) who bikes her around. His love and support shines through on every page (even when he is napping). The first story is how she wants to learn to swim, but nobody wants the “crippled girl” and how her beloved grandfather becomes her teacher. One story is about a new friend who “fights” the bullies by playing possum (and has ties to her grandfather). The third story is about how the past and present collide and a unique love story. And last, but not least, there is one about an old friend of the grandfather and how their community comes together and shines.
The theme is Dreams. Each story has a form of their dream (a dream to swim, the dream a grandfather has for his granddaughter and about her, the dream a granddaughter has for her grandmother, and the dream of youth versus adult responsibilities). I like the idea that the characters live in “communal living in a Hutong” (publisher description). It is a good look at a culture that we’re not as familiar with, but if you’re a city kid you’ll understand a “neighborhood” mentality. This is a world that is not always going to be there, as progress and changes to our mentality of the past makes it obsolete, but overall it is a lovely story that is timeless.
