A Different Pond

"Yes! And I would say this is an audiobook to listen to along with the picture book to get the most out of the story. It’s about a boy who’s going fishing with his dad early in the morning to catch fish for their family. He learns a little bit more about his father’s past in Vietnam and what brought them to the United States. It’s such a sweet story about the relationship between the father and son. I loved hearing the son’s pride in helping catch dinner and have food for their family. There are children who are very young who are experiencing things like the characters in the story and like the author, Bao Phi. It’s special to get to hear the author narrate it himself, it adds to the personal feeling of the story. You have his words, and if you’re looking at the book you have Thi Bui’s illustrations evoking so much of that past. Then, in the audiobook, there are sound effects and a little bit of music, and it all evokes this specific time. At the end, they have an author’s note and an illustrator’s note; it talks a bit about their own experiences, too, which is helpful for kids to listen to and connect with. I always appreciate when they include that in audiobooks, because they help give some context for what might not initially be obvious, and help illuminate what really happened, what Bao’s experience was like as a child and how it’s similar to and different from the story he’s telling here."