Displacement, children's books, and authors of Asian descent

I didn't read many children's books this time around, but I had thoughts about them because of possibly silly reasons.

One book was The Name Jar by Yangook Choi. 

Recently arrived from Korea, Unhei is going to pick an American name. Her new classmates put name suggestions into a jar while Unhei thinks more about names and learns more about her new neighborhood and class.

By coincidence, the last time around one of the books read was Juna's Jar, written by Jane Bahk and illustrated by Felicia Hoshino.

In this case, the jar holds many different things that Juna finds during the day and then shape her dreams at night. A move is the source of the conflict again, but in this case it is that Juna's friend Hector has moved away. Her loneliness is combined with worry about him, and the story follows her path to acceptance and being ready to make new friends.

At the time, I noticed it more because my kindergarten teacher sister had also brought home Jane Clark's Gilbert the Great, about a young shark mourning the departure of his best friend, a remora named Raymond. 

It can be hard being the one left behind; books that deal with that are important, even with different levels of realism and seriousness.

As it happens, the other book I read relatively recently also kind of dealt with that:

Fauja Singh Keeps Going: The True Story of the Oldest Person Ever to Run a Marathon, by Simrat Jeet Singh and illustrated by Baljinder Kaur.

Fauja Singh's story is about more than moving. He is unable to walk when young, and it affects his chances for schooling. Whatever he lacks in other ways he makes up for in sheer determination, eventually not just walking but running, and building a good life for himself and his family. 

Then, his children leave him behind; not losing contact, but not being near. When his wife dies, he goes to live with one child's family, leaving not just his home and village behind, but also his country and language. Running becomes a way of connecting, to people around him, and to the world beyond that.

It is a wonderful story, and possibly better for adults. With the others, I was thinking about loss and connection. I was reminded that there was another book about displacement in that first round of children's books, A Different Pond, written by Bao Phi and illustrated by Thi Bui. As a father and son fish at one pond in Minneapolis, the father talks about a different pond in Vietnam.

Displacement comes up often in the books for grown-ups too, but in these short and simple tales there is a lot of heart. They may be comforting for those grieving separations, young or old.

I should mention that I also -- in my Caldecott Medal reading -- read Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China by Ed Young. 

It is actually more like the story of the Wolf and the Kids than that of Red-Riding Hood, but red is a key color in the illustrations, and it works.