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Searching... Dallas Public Library | + PRESCHOOL - BUNTING | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Salem Main Library | J ILLUST Bunting, E. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
David likes his family the way it has always been, just him and Mom and Dad. He never wanted to be a big brother. And he certainly didn't want Jin Woo, the little baby from Korea, to join the family. Now Jin Woo is getting all the attention, and David feels as if no one cares about him anymore. But then a surprising letter helps him to understand that being a brother can mean being surrounded with more love than ever.
Eve Bunting and Chris Soentpiet bring the same deep emotion that distinguished their previous collaboration, So Far from the Sea, to this moving story of an adoptive family that has love to spare.
Author Notes
Eve Bunting was born in 1928 in Maghera, Ireland, as Anne Evelyn Bunting. She graduated from Northern Ireland's Methodist College in Belfast in 1945 and then studied at Belfast's Queen's College. She emigrated with her family in 1958 to California, and became a naturalized citizen in 1969.
That same year, she began her writing career, and in 1972, her first book, "The Two Giants" was published. In 1976, "One More Flight" won the Golden Kite Medal, and in 1978, "Ghost of Summer" won the Southern California's Council on Literature for Children and Young People's Award for fiction. "Smokey Night" won the American Library Association's Randolph Caldecott Medal in 1995 and "Winter's Coming" was voted one of the 10 Best Books of 1977 by the New York Times.
Bunting is involved in many writer's organizations such as P.E.N., The Authors Guild, the California Writer's Guild and the Society of Children's Book Writers. She has published stories in both Cricket, and Jack and Jill Magazines, and has written over 150 books in various genres such as children's books, contemporary, historic and realistic fiction, poetry, nonfiction and humor.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-David's parents are adopting a baby from Korea, and the boy, also adopted, is less than thrilled. Bunting's sensitive writing tells of Jin Woo's arrival from David's point of view, infusing the story with childlike sensibility and humor. (When his mother says she can't wait for the baby to arrive, the protagonist tells readers, "I can wait. I could wait longer.") Soentpiet's watercolors are suffused with light and perfectly capture the characters' expressions, from the tense faces of the expectant parents, to the delighted looks of the airport bystanders witnessing the baby's happy arrival. One particularly effective illustration shows David's parents through the glass of the airport window, watching the infant emerge from the plane. While their hands are pressed against the pane and their faces are alight with anticipation, their son looks at them uneasily. His fears begin to recede when he finds that he can make the baby laugh, and they fall away completely when his mother reads him a letter from his new brother assuring him that his parents' love for Jin Woo won't take anything away from him. (She wrote it for the baby, his mother says, because she knows what is in his heart.) The only small inconsistency is the car seat in one illustration, which faces forward instead of backward, as it should for a five-month-old child. However, the story's emotional veracity will speak to any new sibling.-Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, Eldersburg, MD (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The team behind So Far from the Sea adds a layer of interest to this tale of a boy's ambivalence toward the arrival of a new sibling a baby adopted from Korea. "I can hardly wait," David's mother says, when the family receives news of Jin Woo's impending arrival. David is not so eager: "I can wait. I could wait longer." With sensitivity and humor, Bunting charts the boy's emotional journey from uncertainty and dread to acceptance, as preparations for the new baby segue to the airport, where David and his parents finally spot Jin Woo (" `I don't think that's the right one,' I say, hoping. Maybe they'll send him back"). David warms up to Jin Woo as he coaxes the first laugh from his new baby brother on the ride home from the airport, and the book ends with him giving a beloved duck mobile to Jin Woo after David is reassured that his parents have more than enough love to go around. If David's transformation feels a bit swift, Bunting nevertheless deftly plumbs the well of conflicting emotions, and Soentpiet's luminously realistic watercolors bolster her efforts. Whether portraying David's initially somber facial expressions, his unmistakable body language as he stands apart from his excited parents at the airport or the rosy-cheeked, cheerful Jin Woo, Soentpiet's illustrations light up the pages and root the story firmly in the affectionate fabric of everyday family life. Ages 5-8. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
When his parents adopt a Korean baby, young David the narrator wants to share their joy but also feels jealous. Throughout the preparations, arrival, and homecoming of Jin Woo, Davey's ambivalence is revealed in realistic watercolors. The happy resolution, cemented with a letter from Jin Woo (ghost-written by Mom) to Davey, is simplistic and sentimental, but it's nevertheless touching. From HORN BOOK Fall 2001, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Among the prolific Buntings many talents is a propensity for distilling complex social issues into accessible picture books that begin to make subjects such as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, adult illiteracy, and homelessness more understandable to younger children. This picture-book exploration of the arrival of an adopted Korean baby named Jin Woo is the second collaboration by Bunting and Soentpiet (So Far From the Sea, 1998), and as a Korean adoptee himself, the talented Soentpiet is particularly well-qualified to illustrate this one. Jin Woos story is told in the present tense from the viewpoint of the babys older brother, a six- or seven-year-old named David, who is also adopted. He is alternately sad, hopeful, unbelieving, and excited at this change in his life, which is an accurate portrayal of the whirlwind of feelings that surround any new big brother. Davids parents are understandably thrilled, with their joyous emotions captured in both Buntings text and in Soentpiets detailed, realistic paintings. His large-format illustrations are the books main strength, surpassing Buntings serviceable story, which is not as compelling as some of her other picture book texts. There are some wonderful recent books on inter-country adoption (notably Rose A. Lewiss I Love You Like Crazy Cakes, 2000), but very few that focus on the mixed feelings of older siblings. This will find a ready audience with many adoptive families, especially those preparing to adopt Asian babies. (Picture book. 4-8)
Booklist Review
Ages 4^-8. Jin Woo is the baby that's coming from Korea to be adopted by David's family, but David's not sure how he feels about having a little brother. The night before Jin Woo's arrival, the family goes to a Korean restaurant. The next day, they pick up the baby at the airport, where David gets to hold the chubby, happy child. When his mother reads him a comforting letter "written" by Jin Woo, David feels things will work out after all. The story's climax comes when David decides to give his brother the duck mobile that spins over his bed. The pictures make David look at least seven, and a mobile at that age seems a bit odd. Otherwise, the art is the high point of this solid piece of bibliotherapy. It has a photographic clarity that makes these characters real enough to touch, and adorable Jin Woo looks eminently huggable. A solid choice for adoption shelves, especially for those looking for material on international adoption. --Ilene Cooper