Be Careful, Xiao Xin!

by Alice Pung, Sher Rill Ng (Illustrator)

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

This is a beautifully illustrated tale about a young boy living under the watchful eye of his overly cautious family. Despite their loving intentions, Xiao Xin longs to find the courage to break free from fear. Heartwarming, yet thought-provoking, this can be a relatable story for kids and adults alike.

Xiao Xin believes he is a fire warrior, but his family thinks the world is too dangerous for him. Can he inspire his family to trust him?

Xiao Xin believes he is a fearless Red Fire Warrior, but his family is always telling him to be careful—he's too little to be a warrior! They believe the world is a dangerous place. But they don't understand what Xiao Xin can be! Can Xiao Xin show his family that he is capable of more than they believe, and inspire his little sister to be brave, too?

Renowned storytellers Alice Pung and Sher Rill Ng bring to life a beautiful and tender story told in both English and Chinese about learning to conquer your own fears—as a child, and as an adult.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593812914
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	11/12/2024
Pages:	48
Product dimensions:	11.31(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.43(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Alice Pung's award-winning books include Unpolished Gem, Her Father's Daughter and the YA novel Lucy and Linh. She also wrote the Marly books for the Our Australian Girl series and edited Growing Up Asian in Australia and My First Lesson.

Sher Rill Ng is a Melbourne-based author and illustrator. Her works have been shown in numerous exhibitions, including the Light Grey Art Lab (Minnesota) and Gallery 1988 (Los Angeles). Sher Rill's debut picture book, Our Little Inventor, was followed by contributing Thumbelina's illustrations to the anthology Fairytales for Feisty Girls by Susannah McFarlane and illustrating Emma Allen's The Night of the Hiding Moon.

Editorial Reviews

"A visually striking, sensitive look at a family affected by generational trauma but whose love for one another endures." —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2024-09-14
A boy chafes against his protective family in this bilingual tale, presented in both English and traditional Chinese.

Fang Xin’s worried parents and grandparents constantly call out “Xiao Xin!”—a phrase that translates both to “Be careful” and the nickname “Little Heart.” Fang Xin finds himself surrounded by a group of morose, amorphous creatures with glowing eyes—a strong visual metaphor for his frustrations. He notices his elders hovering over his baby sister as she attempts to take her first steps. Feeling a burst of independence, he sneaks out of the house. As his terrified caregivers search for him, flashbacks make it clear that their overprotectiveness is rooted in their own trauma. When they finally find Fang Xin, his little sister toddles toward him. His fearful caregivers hold themselves back; taking his sister’s hand, Fang Xin returns to his family, bolstered by a new inner strength. Pung’s terse prose pairs well with Ng’s detailed art, which makes dramatic use of color and perspective to convey heightened emotions. On one spread, Xin Fang looks on enviously as a white-presenting family embrace their child—a moment that might inadvertently give youngsters the impression that white families are more loving. Overall, though, many readers—especially children of immigrants—will see themselves in this empathetic story of caregivers struggling to give their little ones the freedom to make forays into independence.

A visually striking, sensitive look at a family affected by generational trauma but whose love for one another endures.(Picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews