Hope Lim

Jaime Kim

Mommy's Hometown

On her daily bike ride with her dad, a bird-loving little girl passes a woman who frightens her--until she discovers what they have in common. I am a bird. Ca-Caw! Ca-Caw! Every day, a little girl rides to school on the back of her father's bike. As they twist and turn through the streets, the little girl spreads her arms like wings and sings her birdsong for all to hear. But when they pass a strange woman in blue who carries a mysterious bag, the girl goes quiet until the woman is out of sight. One day, when they're running late, the little girl discovers what the woman does with her bag each morning--a surprise that transforms her wariness into a feeling of kinship to be celebrated. Hope Lim's simple text and Hyewon Yum's delicate, expressive illustrations create a touching story that encourages readers to embrace our similarities rather than focus on our differences.

I Am a Bird

When a young boy's beloved plum tree falls in a storm, he feels like he's lost both a friend and a connection to his old home. A young boy, recently arrived from Korea, finds a glorious plum tree in his new backyard. It reminds him of a tree his family had back home, and he names it "Plumee" for the deep purple plums on its branches. Whenever the boy is homesick, he knows he can take shelter in Plumee's tall branches. And when a storm brings the old tree down, he and his friends have all kinds of adventures on its branches, as it becomes a dragon, a treehouse, and a ship in their imaginations. But soon it's time to say goodbye when the remains of the tree are taken away. Before long, a new plum tree is planted, new blossoms bloom, and a new friendship takes root. A South Korean immigrant herself, Hope Lim brings her perspective on the struggle for child immigrants to feel at home to bear through spare, poetic text, perfectly matched by soft, lyrical illustrations by Korean artist Il Sung Na. A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

My Tree

When a young boy and his mother travel overseas to her childhood home in Korea, the town is not as he imagined. Will he be able to see it the way Mommy does? This gentle, contemplative picture book about family origins invites us to ponder the meaning of home. A young boy loves listening to his mother describe the place where she grew up, a world of tall mountains and friends splashing together in the river. Mommy’s stories have let the boy visit her homeland in his thoughts and dreams, and now he’s old enough to travel with her to see it for himself. But when mother and son arrive, the town is not as he imagined. Skyscrapers block the mountains, and crowds hurry past. The boy feels like an outsider—until they visit the river where his mother used to play, and he sees that the spirit and happiness of those days remain. Sensitively pitched to a child’s-eye view, this vivid story honors the immigrant experience and the timeless bond between parent and child, past and present.

Yum Hyewon

View more details of this book at www.walkerbooks.com.au

Hope Lim

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