{"id":356919,"date":"2026-07-09T20:58:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T20:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/great-kid-books-wishes-by-muon-thi-van-opening-our-readers-hearts\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T20:58:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T20:58:36","slug":"great-kid-books-wishes-by-muon-thi-van-opening-our-readers-hearts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=356919","title":{"rendered":"Great Kid Books: Wishes, by M\u01b0\u1ee3n Th\u1ecb V\u0103n: Opening our readers’ hearts"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Personal stories, especially picture books, have an incredible power to open readers’ hearts. In her beautiful new book Wishes<\/a><\/b>, M\u01b0\u1ee3n Th\u1ecb V\u0103n draws on her personal experience fleeing Vietnam with her family in search of a safer home. She prompts readers to ask, if you had to leave everything you knew and loved behind, what would you wish for?<\/p>\n

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Wishes<\/a><\/b>
by M\u01b0\u1ee3n Th\u1ecb V\u0103n
illustrated by Victo Ngai
Orchard \/ Scholastic, 2021
Amazon<\/a> \/ your local library<\/a> \/ Overdrive<\/a>
ages 6 and up<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a young girl and her family pack in the middle of the night, they say a tearful goodbye to her grandfather and others who will stay behind. They make their way to board a small boat, and then begin a dangerous journey across the ocean, searching for a new life.\u00a0V\u0103n\u00a0structures the story as a series of wishes. As the family waits in line with other refugees, “the boat wished it was bigger.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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“The boat wished it was bigger.”<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

M\u01b0\u1ee3n Th\u1ecb V\u0103n uses spare, poetic language and lets Victo Ngai’s beautiful, cinematic imagery convey much of the story. \u00a0This combination encourages readers to pause and open their hearts, both to the fear this young family faces and their hope of finding a better life. This picture book helps readers hold profound loss, resilience and hope all at once.<\/p>\n

V\u0103n’s family fled Vietnam when she was a baby — her family’s experiences as migrants and refugees is the inspiration for this story. As V\u0103n says<\/a>, “Every line of text is grounded in my family\u2019s experience as refugees. I wanted the reader to be able to see, and feel, the story from the inside.” This video introduces both author and artist, and conveys their personal connections to this story:<\/p>\n