Shelf Awareness--My Grandfather's Song

PB Review: My Grandfather's Song

My Grandfather's Song by Phùng Nguyên Quang, illus. by Huỳnh Kim Liên (Make Me a World, 40p., ages 4-8, 9780593488614, October 17, 2023)

The satisfying and thoughtful My Grandfather's Song uses the lyrical voice of a grandchild to relate the story of how their forebear, an early "pioneer... to the south of Vietnam," learned to find the music in his new home and use it to coexist with nature. Back matter deepens the takeaways by elaborating on the story's relevance to Earth's current climate crisis.

The grandchild, spending the day working alongside Grandfather, describes how the man journeyed to a new land in a tiny boat across water that was "gentle as a lullaby." The looming jungle the pair visits early in the morning is home to unseen voices, which Grandfather calls a song that must be learned. Likewise, the bamboo they cut is "a melody we raise high as a roof"; the earth is an instrument that, with time, will provide "a harmony of plenty." Even when sounds are frightening--"a rustle, a creak, a slither through darkness"--finding the song eases the fear and a new song follows, one of fish and ocean and forest. Years pass and the now-grown grandchild has learned the "symphony of generations," which they share with new families, who add additional voices to the "chorus of our song."

The inspiring text is passionate and emotive, and the extended metaphor of nature speaking through music proves a powerful tool. Dynamic digital illustrations beautifully convey the wild landscape, their impact emphasized by the horizontal length of the book. Bright, bold colors and a surreal sensibility dramatically evoke the animal spirits--including a giant monkey and oversized turtle--who reside within the jungle and the pages. Water and sky also come alive in swirling, layered currents of color and texture.

In-depth back matter explains that Phùng Nguyên Quang and Huỳnh Kim Liên created this story as a tribute to "the very first pioneers" who lived in a land and time when "humans had to pay respect to Mother Nature and her creatures in order to settle there." Now, this same land is home to modern cities where nature remains both "generous and dangerous"--we should "be thankful for the things we have taken from the earth." My Grandfather's Song gently suggests the potential benefits humans may reap in rethinking our relationship to the earth, to the climate, to the world. Because when "we listen... the land responds with gifts." --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author.