Taking Wings With Story

On discovering the December 2022 issue of School Library Journal in my mailbox, I let out a whoop of joy at seeing the cover.  I hugged the magazine to my heart as I walked back from the road to the inside of my home.  For several days, it was on the kitchen counter so I could see it as I walked from room to room.  

The image on the front of the issue created by author illustrator Guojing is a marvelous representation of her 2022 book, The Flamingo (Random House Studio, September 07, 2022).  In this illustration of a pale blue sky sprinkled with a few stars, a glowing full moon is centered.  Flying in front of the moon and soaring upward is a flamingo, wings outstretched.  Upon the flamingo's back is the child protagonist from the story.  The beauty of this scene is layered in meaning as is The Flamingo.

part one

A Trip to Visit Lao Lao

All on My Own

Most of the 140 pages in this two chapter book hold wordless panels.  We see a plane, flamingo pink in color, flying from a city.  After it lands, the girl greets her grandmother, Lao Lao.  Lao Lao drives them to her home in a land of sunshine, palm trees, and a nearby beach.  In exploring her grandmother's home, the child finds a pink and white feather resting in a flamingo-shaped mug.

That night after a bath and dinner, Lao Lao, when asked, starts the story of the feather.  As a little girl she and her dog make an exciting discovery on the beach.  It is an egg.  She fills her bicycle basket with sand and carries the egg home.  She makes a nest for it in a container next to her bed.  Lao Lao stops the story for the night.

The next day, Lao Lao and her granddaughter walk on the beach and find a turtle hatching from its shell.  This prompts Lao Lao to continue the story of her egg found many years ago.  When Lao Lao's egg cracks open a bird emerges, a flamingo.  She cares for the bird and it goes everywhere with the girl and her dog.  On one of their first outings, the flamingo rests on the girl's head as she and her dog sit watching the sunset on the water.

Each day Lao Lao tells her granddaughter more about her flamingo.  As the bird grows, so does their affection for each other.  They are inseparable, until one day the bird flies up, up, and away, leaving behind a single feather.  Lao Lao as a child waits and watches for the flamingo, hoping for its return.  After that point in her story, to the surprise of Lao Lao and the girl, a stunning sight awaits them as they walk on the sandy shore.

part two

My Turn to Fly Home

When the girl has to return to the city, Lao Lao presents her with a prized possession.  Back in her apartment, the buildings, sights and sounds are in sharp contrast to the beach and Lao Lao's home.  One night, a full moon outside her window supplies the light, the necessary spark, the girl needs to make an extraordinary gift for Lao Lao.  The realm of imagination and reality merge and close a distance with love.

In reading the dedication, readers are privy to some of the inspiration behind this story conceived by Guojing.  It reads:

This book is dedicated to

my mother, who said I'm her flamingo,

my son, who arrived when I completed this book,

and my grandma in heaven, who gave me the happiest childhood.

Clearly, the affection between family members is the heart beating in the pages of this book.  This love bridges generations, space, and time.  It lives in story.

When you open the dust jacket, you see images from the two chapters of the book.  On the right side, the front, a flamingo visits the girl on the fire escape outside her bedroom window.  This illustration will have readers asking questions.  Why is the flamingo there?  How does it find this girl?  What does it want?  What does the girl want?  To the left, on the back, is a close-up of one of my many favorite pictures.  It is of Lao Lao as a child with her dog and the baby flamingo.

On the book case, Guojing has placed another interior picture.  It spans left to right, featuring Lao Lao as a little girl.  She is running across the beach with her dog on the left side.  Sky and beach appear nearly as one in shimmering shades of gold.  On the right, the flamingo glides past a glowing sun.  

On the opening endpapers, a pale blue sky is edged along the bottom and the right side in billowing clouds.  The closing endpapers appear as a continuation of that sky.  Two flamingos are shown on the left side, flying to the left.  On the two-page picture for the title page a plane in flamingo pink flies to the left from the right side.

These breathtaking illustrations 

rendered in Photoshop, watercolor, and colored pencil

are wordless panels in an array of arrangements to portray the passing of time, emotional moments, and place.  The varying perspectives bring us deeply into the story.  Sometimes we are only shown a portion of an element, like a set of airplane landing wheels squealing to a stop on the runway or feet in flamingo slippers after a bath or a beak pecking its way out of an egg.  Other times we look down on the flamingo flying over the beach along the water's edge with Lao Lao on her bike and her dog running ahead.

The color palette used in this story signifies the present in limited color with spots of pink in lighter and darker hues.  When Lao Lao's memory story and other "flights" of imagination are showcased brighter, full color is used.  The pacing, size of the panels, and their placement is exquisite.  These images speak volumes giving us a story of generational love, the magic of memory, and the power of sharing stories, real and imagined.

One of my many favorite images (It is nearly impossible to select only one.) is of Lao Lao as a little girl.  It is a double-page picture.  The sea is rippled by a gentle breeze.  A few clouds linger in the sky.  Both are colored in the warmth of a sun dipping close to the horizon.  On the left side is a large stone.  Seated on the stone facing the sea is Lao Lao, her dog, and the tiny flamingo.  Lao Lao's dog is to the left of her.  Her left arm is reaching behind the dog in a hug.  On her head is the baby flamingo.  This scene, like so many in this book, is tender and moving.

Even after having read The Flamingo by Guojing repeatedly, you will find yourself profoundly affected each time.  No one tells a story like Guojing.  Her artwork envelops you completely.  If you have not read her other two books, The Only Child and Stormy, please do.  I highly recommend this title for all your collections.  

To discover more about Guojing and her other work, please access her website by following the link attached to her name.  Guojing has accounts on Instagram and Twitter.  Guojing and this title are highlighted at School Library Journal, A Fuse #8 Production with an interview by Betsy Bird and at School Library Journal with an interview by Andrew Eliopulos regarding her cover art for the magazine.  At the publisher's website, you can view interior images.

Following Toward Forever

Late Thursday night in the eastern daylight time zone and in the early hours of Friday morning, you could see a movement swell. It traveled across our planet from place to place as the day September 20, 2019 dawned.  This outpouring of support for the Global Climate Strike clearly demonstrates the power of a single soul to rally people around a worldwide crisis.

While the efforts of this sixteen-year-old Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg, have rightfully drawn international attention, there are other champions, single souls, who without any notice, change a life (or lives) for the better every day.  These unsung heroes walk among us, displaying compassion for those who do not have the ability to care for themselves.  They see what is needed and respond accordingly.  Stormy (Schwartz & Wade, September 17, 2019) conceived and illustrated by Guojing (The Only Child, Schwartz & Wade, December 15, 2015) is a striking depiction of kindness steadfastly delivered and eventually received.  It is about being lost and found.  It is about having a place to call home.

Without words this story begins and ends on the opening and closing endpapers.  On the first is a heap beneath a bench beneath a tree in a park.  Following this is a double-page picture for the title, verso and dedication pages, moving us closer to the bench.  A small curly-haired dog is sleeping in a ball shape for warmth.

 In a series of horizontal panels, a woman comes to the bench to read a newspaper.  The pup, afraid, runs away and watches her from a distance until she leaves.  As night falls, the homeless dog is again under the bench.  As the tale continues in a collection of horizontal panels, some nearly perfect squares, the woman returns the next day with a ball for the dog.  She carefully tries to get it to play.  The dog runs away.  The woman leaves but does not take the ball.

 On the third day a cautious game of throw and fetch takes place between the woman and the hesitant stray.  As the sun starts to set, there is still a distance between them.  The woman leaves to head back to her home in the city.  She does not know the dog, ball in its mouth, is following her at a safe space.

After the woman walks through her door, the dog sits outside, as if willing her to look out her window and discover it there.  It gets darker and darker and begins to rain.  The shower turns into a full-blown storm with flashes of lightning and thunder.  Drenched and shaking, the pup seeks shelter in a soggy cardboard box by the doorway, leaving the ball on the sidewalk.

Within the final seven page turns, readers will feel their hearts racing.  They will want to call out to the dog and the woman.  You can't help but sense the deep desperation filling both these beings.  You wonder and wish.  And then . . .


Without words we still comprehend everything through the striking visuals created by Guojing.  Each moment is portrayed exquisitely and explicitly to the point the words appear spontaneously in our minds and are engraved on our hearts.  This connection through art begins on the front of the dust jacket.  The pup's stance is assured but seeking.  The ball is a symbol of patience, kindness and acceptance.  The luminosity seen in the clouds is a technique used throughout the book to supply warmth or the hope of warmth.

To the left, on the back of the dust jacket it's night in the park.  The dog is sitting in front of the bench with the ball on the ground in front of it.  Fireflies sparkle among the grass as a few stars twinkle in the partly cloudy sky.  A crescent moon glows on the right.  The dust jacket is covered in a deep midnight blue.  The only element other than the author's name, the title and publisher's logo on the spine is a silver dog tag on the front.  It reads STORMY above an etched dog bone.

As stated earlier the opening endpapers start this story and the closing endpapers end the story at the same place with noticeable differences. 

The illustrations were rendered in pencil and watercolor and compiled digitally.

Each panel in a group of panels on a single page directs our attention to a specific moment.  The panel sizes vary to place emphasis on those moments.  Our eyes move from each one to the next, forming an emotional connection between us and the woman and the dog.  For dramatic effect Guojing has full-page and double-page pictures.  They wrap around us, making us a part of the narrative. 

Each of these panels are also a layer to the story.  We can perceive something growing.  The skies behind the woman,  the dog and each setting are also indicative of changes.  The use of light and shadow is masterful by Guojing.  As the rain begin in earnest a streetlight shines on the dog waiting outside the woman's home.  The only other light is from her window.  All other windows are dark.  As the storm intensifies the darkness with little light formulates one vivid scene after the other.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is a double-page picture.  The tree near the park bench extends up the left side with one branch moving along the top and across the gutter almost to the bench.  Two birds fly in a glowing sky.  Next to the tree the small dog sits with the ball between its paws.  Almost next to the bench the woman sits, knees drawn up and held by her arms.  The two watch each other carefully.  You know they both desire to be closer.  The one has survived by being cautious but needs love and the other has a great deal of love to give but doesn't want to frighten the other.  You have to remind yourself to breathe looking at this picture.


If reading the dedication

For my lost dog, Dou Dou.
I miss you. 

does not bring tears to your eyes, there will be other moments when you will burst into sobs.  But . . . in this book, Stormy conceived and illustrated by Guojing, despite every circumstance, we find ourselves believing in miracles.   We find our tears turning to joy and true contentment born of love.  I recommend this book with all the stars for your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Guojing and her other work, please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  Guojing has accounts on Instagram and Twitter.  Here is the publisher's website highlighting Stormy.  Enjoy the artwork here and on Guojing's Instagram account.  Author, reviewer and blogger, Julie Danielson, talks about this book on her site, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast and she also includes artwork.

Alone But Not Alone

There is beauty in our world, tiny and delicate, huge and overwhelming, every single day.  Sometimes we don't see, hear, smell, taste or touch this beauty even though it appears right before us.  Our hearts are too full of something else.  Those things of beauty, a hummingbird bending to sip nectar from a flower, a doe nudging a fawn, one child helping another child after a fall, an elderly couple reaching out to hold hands, a father rocking a fussy child in the grocery store, a mom whispering to one of the boys in her son's scout troop during a project, a neighbor's cat purring in your garden, the scent of the first lilac blooming or the feel of the sun's rays as it sets purple, gold and pink, will never be exactly the same again.  The beauty in those perfect moments is gone.

But if we long for beauty which is lasting all we need to do is look in a book.  Every time we open the covers it surrounds us.  On December 1, 2015 publishers Schwartz & Wade Books released a title which made readers marvel page turn after page turn.  It was named one of The New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of 2015, an ALSC, Association for Library Service to Children, Notable Children's Books-2016, and a title on the Booklist Top Ten Graphic Novels for Youth: 2016.  A first book by Guojing The Only Child is a title which will leave a mark on your heart, a breathtaking display of visual storytelling masterfully rendered.  In a beginning author's note Guojing writes:

The story in this book is fantasy, but it reflects the very real feelings of isolation and loneliness I experienced growing up in the 1980s under the one-child policy in China.  

A small child awakens and receives a goodbye hug from her mother as she leaves for work.  On her own the child brushes her teeth, gets dressed and occupies herself during the morning, playing with dolls and her beloved toy deer, and looking at a picture album.  These pictures give her an idea.  After writing a note she pulls on warmer clothing, puts coins in a purse and steps out into the winter weather with an umbrella over her head.

Wandering through the city she makes her way to a bus stop, hoping to visit her grandmother soon.  Without meaning to she falls asleep.  When she wakes up the bus is empty and at the last stop in the woods.  She is alone and lost.  At home her frantic parents have found her note and they try unsuccessfully to find her.

Tearful and fearful she wanders through the forest until a large stag appears.  She follows hoping it is leading her home.  After it saves her from deep water, they travel, she on the back of the deer, farther and farther until the landscape changes with a stairway leading them into the clouds.  It is a realm radiating happiness.  The stag patiently endures her playfully tugs and pokes at its body and face.

Another small being seemingly formed from the clouds themselves, someone the child's size, appears.  They make a delightful duo and an even better trio until something gigantic surfaces, breaking through the clouds as if they are waves on an immense sea.  Soon they are spinning among the stars buoyed up by a burst of air.  As this adventure calms a cloud glides into their vision.

A mother has come to claim her child.  The deer comforts the lost girl until she falls asleep.  Two trips are made; one by the stag and the other by the child and her forest friend.  A glowing, guiding light is followed.  Gratitude and love are exchanged as the two fast friends part from each other.


There are no words on any of these pages but they hum forth from the images rendered in pencil and adjusted in Adobe Photoshop by Guojing.  The front of the dust jacket exudes warmth, comfort and security with a very real promise of an extraordinary relationship.  To the left, on the back, are nine small illustrations from the interior of the book in three rows of three after the child and the deer enter the kingdom of clouds.

A deep midnight blue covers the book case with the title placed in a small white label on the front in the center.  The opening and closing endpapers invite us into a luminous country wrought by imagination.  There is a hint of a single dot on the former and the faint shadow of a faithful friend on the latter, as if it's a memory never to be forgotten.  The text on the title page is placed in frames featuring a city and a single window with a light snow falling.

With a skill surely fueled by the intimacy Guojing has with this story, the pacing reveals every emotional instance with a shift in the size and perspective of the images.  A series of pictures create a passage of time followed by a single illustration depicting a mood which goes straight to your soul; a close-up of the child looking at the closed door with her back to us.  For a stunning impact Guojing gives readers a visual spanning two pages; the city with the child, small in comparison walking alone, the child looking in awe upward as she and the stag stand in a circle of light, or the two double-page illustrations bringing us close to the deer and the child as they say goodbye (This is movingly portrayed with a striking impact.)

The child's face is fully animated mirroring everything she feels; her sadness is profound but her joy is delightful.  The regal almost royal carriage of the deer, the details on the antlers and the fine lines of fur make you long for a similar protector.  When the cloud child peeks out from the white billows the first time like a sky bear you know the girl has found another companion.

I have so many favorite illustrations it is impossible to pick only one.  Every time I've read this book though, I've grinned at one particular set of four pictures.  In the first the stag, cloud child and little girl are standing and sitting with their backs to us as the girl looks behind them.  She notices she is the only one without a puffy tail.  Reaching into the clouds, she forms a ball.  In the final visual all three are in a row with tails.  The deer gazes at the girl as her arms are raised in victory.

Your world fades away as you enter the pages of The Only Child conceived and illustrated with exquisite care by Guojing.  We take an emotional journey with this child, hopeful every step of the way.  Most certainly this is a stunning debut for Guojing, destined to be a classic for all ages.

To discover more about Guojing please follow the link attached to her name to access her Tumblr pages. This link takes you to the Creative Authors page for her. Numerous images including my favorite mentioned here can be found at author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson's blog, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.  Enjoy Scholastic's Ambassador for School Libraries John Schumacher's tweet.

Happy belated book birthday to @guojingart's The Only Child! https://t.co/L7Wms1p46O

— John Schu (@MrSchuReads) December 3, 2015

Update:  April 7, 2016  An interview between Guojing and Lee Wade, the vice-president of Schwartz & Wade is on Nerdy Book Club.  

Have you see the book trailer which is contained in the interview?