The Paper Boat - by Thao Lam (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Thao Lam's family came to Canada as refugees during the Vietnam War. When Thao started thinking about how to tell this story, she couldn't stop thinking about ants: small, seemingly insignificant creatures who are able to travel amazingly long distances overwater, work hard, and thrive on almost every continent on the planet. Boat People starts with a story inspired by Thao's mother's life: a young girl watches as a bowl of sugar water is put out to attract (and get rid of) some pesky aunts. As the adults around her frantically make plans for escape, she dips her chopstick into the bowl to save the drowning insects. When the army arrives, the family must flee, and in the chaos, the girl and her mother become separated from the others, and get lost in the jungle. The mother gives the hungry girl a bun wrapped in paper, which she then folds into a paper boat. After they eat, the girl spots a trail of ants in the moonlight. They follow the insects to water and manage to meet up with the boat that will take them to safety. The story switches to the perspective of a family of ants who have boarded the paper boat. Their journey is full of peril. The sun is relentless, the ants are attacked by seagulls, they starve, a storm capsizes their boat, and many ants are lost. The survivors, however, cling to each other, creating a raft of their own bodies, eventually making it to shore. One ant ends up on a kitchen table, surrounded by food, much like the table from the first scene. But the family members around this table aren't quite the same. The grandmother is no longer there, the little girl has grown, and she's been joined by a baby sister. But they seem happy, and most importantly, they are safe. As the story ends, the reader zooms out to see that they are but one family in an apartment building full of families, in a busy city full of apartment buildings full of tiny, seemingly insignificant creatures, working hard and thriving. With this picture book, Thao is returning to an earlier format: the wordless picture book of sequential art. But she has pushed herself again with the artwork--and this story is a collage of simple shapes, clean geometry, and impressionistic washes of colour. Its simplicity belies its great depth of feeling. This is a heartfelt, one-of-a-kind book on every level."--

Book Synopsis

Named a best picture book of 2020 by Kirkus, School Library Journal, Booklist, New York Public Library, the Globe and Mail, CBC, and the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books -- a heartfelt and personal immigration story by critically acclaimed author Thao Lam

New from Thao Lam, the award-winning author of picture books My Cat Looks Like My Dad, Wallpaper, and Skunk on a String, comes a personal story inspired by her family's refugee journey.

In The Paper Boat, Thao's signature collage art tells the wordless story of one family's escape from Vietnam--a journey intertwined with an ant colony's parallel narrative.

At her home in Vietnam, a girl rescues ants from the sugar water set out to trap them. Later, when the girl's family flees war-torn Vietnam, ants lead them through the moonlit jungle to the boat that will take them to safety. Before boarding, the girl folds a paper boat from a bun wrapper and drops it into the water, and the ants climb on. Their perilous journey, besieged by punishing weather, predatory birds, and dehydration, before reaching a new beginning, mirrors the family's own. Impressionistic collages and a moving, Own Voices narrative make this a one-of-a-kind tale of courage, resilience, and hope.

Review Quotes

"A wonderfully gentle way to tell the story of war."

-- "Calgary Herald"

"Readers will be enchanted by this remarkable wordless picture book, and its powerful themes of sacrifice, survival, and--above all else--family."

-- "Sal's Fiction Addiction"

"This sensitively rendered story is accessible to young viewers, and it's a perfect stepping stone for older readers."

-- "Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books - STARRED REVIEW"

"The Paper Boat is beautiful, emotional, and an essential read."-- "The Tiny Activist"

"[The Paper Boat] is another brilliant wordless display of Lam's talents as a paper cut and collage connoisseur... Lam takes care to depict every feeling of every key moment from the young girl's perspective, providing readers with an innocent lens through which to connect with this story."-- "Let's Talk Picture Books"

"[Lam] carefully guides her readers through the emotional trauma of [the Vietnam War] from the perspective of a child... Lam shares her story in an equally moving afterword but it's the wordless story that will resonate with readers."-- "The Globe and Mail"

"A rich story rife with emotion."-- "Canadian Review of Materials"

"Crisply cut paper represents intricate domestic scenes and just as skillfully conveys suspense... in this story of bravery and resilience."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"Thao Lam invites the reader to delve into the story and make connections between the two families, one ant and one human, finding the similarities and differences in their plights and the relationships between and within."-- "CanLit for Little Canadians"

"The artistry in the illustrations is spectacular... An important story told in an impeccable format."-- "School Library Journal - STARRED REVIEW"

"The delicacy of the cut-paper art makes for incredibly moving images and invites the eye to linger on the frames... One can find the ants in the jungle, follow the child's eye, then return to the previous spread to breathe in its emotional impact, before carrying on."-- "Children's Literature"

"The visual storytelling here is rich and layered; it's a compelling story and filled with such details that readers will find themselves lingering over panel after panel and page after page. It's deeply moving, this tribute to Lam's own family."-- "Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast"

"Unique, wordless, and beautiful."-- "100 Scope Notes"

"With cut paper illustrations, Lam shows two parallel stories -- a Vietnamese family and a group of ants -- leaving home and taking to boats for refuge. The tiny ants deepen the sense of the family's vulnerability and, although Lam describes an event of the 1970s, the story resonates all too well in our current world."-- "Toronto Star"

"Children will be compelled to return again and again to digest its story. A timely, resonant, exceptional model of visual storytelling."-- "Kirkus Reviews - STARRED REVIEW"

"Each panel is so detailed that readers will want to linger over them all, admiring Lam's craft even while being immersed in emotions. A tender tribute to the author's parents and to all refugees who survive and thrive despite enormous odds."-- "Booklist - STARRED REVIEW"

"I loved this wordless true story of a little girl and her family escaping Vietnam for a new home in North American. Told in frames, like a comic or graphic novel, Thao Lam's story evolves as the family hides their goods, their intentions, and their leaving, with the story of the ants the girl has helped to make the same journey. It's dark and scary, but as much of our world is again feeling the same, it is also comforting to see them together at the end, all at home."-- "René Kirkpatrick, University Book Store, Seattle WA"

"Thao Lam shares her family's history in this wordless tribute to the adults and children who were forced to flee Vietnam in the aftermath of the war."-- "Foreword Reviews"

About the Author

THAO LAM is the critically acclaimed author/illustrator of Wallpaper, My Cat Looks Like My Dad, and Skunk on a String. She studied illustration at Sheridan College and has an insatiable love of colored and textured papers, which she uses to create her exuberant collages. She draws inspiration from the stories she hears, from the beauty in everyday things, and from the work of the many illustrators she admires. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.