Friends Are Friends, Forever

October 25, 2021
Based on Liu’s personal experiences emigrating from Changchun, China, to North Carolina, this earnest, poetic narrative (“Nainai’s stories chime in my ears./ Garlic and ginger tickle my nose./ I close my eyes to remember everything”) follows Dandan, a Chinese child, and best friend and neighbor Yueyue. When Dandan must move after the Lunar New Year, the friends enjoy their paper-cutting ornament tradition for the last time, and Yueyue gives Dandan supplies for next year. But Dandan has difficulty making new friends—that is, until meeting pale-skinned, freckled Christina, who eventually partakes in the Lunar New Year festivities with Dandan’s family. Scurfield’s cartoonish art—drawings rendered in pencil, colored with ink, and digitally collaged—adds levity to a sensitive story. At once culturally nuanced and universally heartfelt, this picture book debut will resonate with anyone who has ever had to leave a friend behind—and managed to make a new one. Back matter includes an author’s note, more information on Lunar New Year, and instructions on how to make a snowflake. Ages 4–8.

December 1, 2021
The art of Chinese paper cutting and the art of friendship come together in this heartfelt migration story. Bundled up and brightly dressed, best friends Dandan and Yueyue gleefully stroll hand in hand through a snowy neighborhood in China. But joy soon turns to sorrow--Dandan learns that she and her family will soon be moving to America on the day of the Lunar New Year. The girls spend their remaining time together celebrating New Year's Eve. They munch on dumplings, spend time with their families, and make bright red paper cuttings to serve as ornaments. With a tight hug and a stack of red paper as a parting gift, Yueyue urges Dandan to carry on their paper cutting tradition with a new friend in her new homeland. In America, Dandan feels lonely and friendless. Everything is different, she can't speak English, and some of her new classmates laugh at her Chinese qipao dress. With a smile from a White, freckle-faced girl named Christina, though, her voice and a new friendship bloom. With so much to learn about her new home and her new friend, can Dandan keep old traditions--like paper cutting--alive? Liu's descriptive text deftly captures the ups, downs, and in-betweens of a child's experience moving to a new country. Scurfield's digitally collaged pencil-and-ink illustrations are mostly bright and colorful, but a brief shift to monochrome underscores the strangeness of a new place and the anxiety of learning a new language. Repeated motifs underline the fact that regardless of geographical location, some things remain the same. A reassuring story of friendship in the face of change. (author's note, about the author, about paper cutting, how to make a snowflake instructions) (Picture book. 4-7)

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July 1, 2021
Before moving to America, Dandan and her family celebrate Lunar New Year in China with her best friend Yueyue and her family. They eat egg-and-chive filled dumplings dipped in black vinegar and soy sauce; later, the girls make celebratory red paper snowflakes, and Yueyue gives Dandan paper supplies to bring to America. The move proves lonely and difficult for Dandan, until she makes a friend whose favorite color is also red. With bright, warm colors and curved shapes, Scurfield enhances the tender story's hopeful tone. An author's note provides more details about Chinese New Year; instructions for making cut-paper snowflakes are also appended.

(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)