Stories about moving from one home to another are a staple of children’s picture books, but many just skim the surface, showing a flurry of moving boxes and an eventual settling in. In contrast, Home Is a Wish is a deeply felt story told from a child’s point of view. It’s one of the best this reviewer has seen.
Readers don’t learn any specifics about the relocation of the narrator’s family, though the plane depicted suggests that the narrator has moved to a different country. This accentuates the sense of dislocation that young children are apt to feel, while adding to the universality of the reading experience. Julia Kuo’s sparse narration and engaging illustrations get right to the heart of the matter: those topsy-turvy feelings erupting from the move.
Fans of Kuo’s Let’s Do Everything and Nothing and When Love Is More Than Words know how well she conveys meaningful sentiments without resorting to schmaltz. In Home Is a Wish, shades of purple, peach and orange lend a dreamy, bright feel to the narrator’s apartment as they pack up and leave, “not knowing if we will ever be back.” Kuo’s graphic style and use of color are particularly engaging, and the book is anchored by dark, deep blues depicting the night and the ocean. The new apartment is in the midst of a bright, bustling city surrounded by snow-capped mountains. “I see and feel every little thing in this strange, new place,” the narrator says, while standing on a balcony and peering out at this intriguing new home, which is filled with an array of pastel colors and billboards showing cheery fish. Scenes from outside the new apartment let readers peer through its windows at the grandmother and the mother unpacking, while the lonely child sits outside, wondering, “How can this be our home?”
One yearning, dreamlike spread sees the narrator paddling a canoe from the family’s old apartment building to their new one. But as the weather warms and flowers bloom, Kuo depicts fun family outings, including a new best friend, Carmen, and the narrator realizes, “Now I see there are different homes for different times: a home from before, a home for now, even a home for later. Home is a wish that comes true when I can say, I’m from here now.”
Home Is a Wish is a gorgeous book that allows readers to feel both theemotions of displacement and the comforts of home. It’s an ultimately reassuring story that encourages empathy and invites discussion from young readers.
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