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purchristeekorn's review
4.0
The story of Here I Am is interesting. Through beautifully painted (collage-like) pictures, a boy's journey into a new land is depicted. You can see how lonely he is and how he starts to make friends. The paintings are what drew me to this book. The colors are vibrant and the illustrator's style is eye catching. Yes, I liked the story, but I loved the pictures. This is perfect since there are no words until the end.
tashrow's review
5.0
This wordless picture book is the story of a boy and his family coming to an American city. The signs don’t make any sense, the crowds are huge. It’s noisy and big and confusing. In the boy’s pocket is a red object from home. It reminds him of what he left behind whenever he holds it in his hand. He spends a lot of time at home, not interacting with anyone until one day, he drops his keepsake out of the window where a girl picks it up. The girl heads off and the boy follows her and along the way discovers the greener parts of the city, food he recognizes, and people who are friendly. In the end, he’s planted himself firmly into this new place.
Told entirely in pictures, this wordless book is written by a person who lived through this experience when they came to America from Korea forty years ago. The book has an honesty that runs through it and nicely shows the time that it takes for someone to even see the positive in a new place. It addresses the overwhelming feeling of homesickness and the jarring loss of language that isolates. Beautifully illustrated, this book is one that has intricate images that come together to form a cohesive and powerful whole.
A remarkable capturing of the immigrant story, this book will speak to those who are immigrants and will also help others understand what children from other countries are going through. The choice to make it wordless makes it all the more useful with immigrant populations in our communities. Appropriate for ages 4-7.
Told entirely in pictures, this wordless book is written by a person who lived through this experience when they came to America from Korea forty years ago. The book has an honesty that runs through it and nicely shows the time that it takes for someone to even see the positive in a new place. It addresses the overwhelming feeling of homesickness and the jarring loss of language that isolates. Beautifully illustrated, this book is one that has intricate images that come together to form a cohesive and powerful whole.
A remarkable capturing of the immigrant story, this book will speak to those who are immigrants and will also help others understand what children from other countries are going through. The choice to make it wordless makes it all the more useful with immigrant populations in our communities. Appropriate for ages 4-7.
ellielabbett's review
4.0
Kim and Sánchez show the journey of a boy arriving and setting in a new country. The illustrations really interested me in this, scattered in an almost collage-like formation, with no sense of order. There is such a frenzied feeling of loss of control, and the reader is placed in a similar position of disorientation as they try to decipher the events. To me, this felt quite similar to ‘The Arrival’, but I think that having the addition of colour makes the new transition all the more overwhelming. It is really interesting to watch how the positioning of Sánchez’ illustrations alter as the story progresses and the protagonist becoming more comfortable in his new home. This would be excellent for making inferences, which is only heightened by the accessibility brought about by the lack of words- I can imagine some super book talk about the meaning behind shapes and layering.
Letting go of a part of your past is a difficult thing, and sometimes people need to be pushed into moving forward. Clinging to a small seed from his homeland, a sudden loss causes the child to take a step into this new world. What appeared to be a devastating event was ultimately a positive, as this gentle push helps him to make new relationships. Here, he finds himself able to have fun, despite lacking confidence and having lost his sense of self. This is an important message that would benefit any child, that whilst we may feel scared, it is in immersing ourselves in the outside that we can find ourselves.
Letting go of a part of your past is a difficult thing, and sometimes people need to be pushed into moving forward. Clinging to a small seed from his homeland, a sudden loss causes the child to take a step into this new world. What appeared to be a devastating event was ultimately a positive, as this gentle push helps him to make new relationships. Here, he finds himself able to have fun, despite lacking confidence and having lost his sense of self. This is an important message that would benefit any child, that whilst we may feel scared, it is in immersing ourselves in the outside that we can find ourselves.
mat_tobin's review
5.0
Based on the true story of the author who moved from Busan, Korea to the USA forty years previously, this is a wordless picturebook which follows the transition and change that a young boy goes through as he emigrates from his home to a foreign country. The illustrations are incredibly clever and beautifully put together. I enjoyed how Kim uses colour and tone to depict the boy's feelings and frustrations and she also shows the world as frustrating and overwhelming at the start in much the same way Tan does [b:The Arrival|920607|The Arrival|Shaun Tan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1312827620s/920607.jpg|905641].
It is the book's honesty that it welcoming. The transition is hard and quite upsetting to the young boy and could be a very valuable book for others who have undergone the same transition as well as supporting peers to see the world from their perspective.
It is the book's honesty that it welcoming. The transition is hard and quite upsetting to the young boy and could be a very valuable book for others who have undergone the same transition as well as supporting peers to see the world from their perspective.
katebrarian's review
4.0
This is such a lovely book. A wordless story of a young child's experience immigrating to a new country where they don't know the language or the culture. I used gender-neutral pronouns because when I read through the book I imagined the child was a girl, but the blurb in the back uses male pronouns, so clearly this kid can be whoever is reading!
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