Flash Review: This is Hong Kong by M. Sasek

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By Maureen Tai, 28 March 2021

Turning the pages of M. Sasek’s classic This is Hong Kong (ages 5+) with its evocative, detailed illustrations, is like stepping into history, to a time when the city’s streets were teeming: with rickshaws, hawkers and labourers carrying dried fish, silks or bricks on the end of bamboo poles, stylishly-coiffed ladies in cheongsams, and tourists seeking all manner of exotic goods. While some landmarks – notably the Tiger Balm Garden and Kai Tak Airport – and some sights – floating schools, traffic controllers in gazebos – no longer exist, Sasek’s pictorial ode to Hong Kong is enchanting for readers of all ages.

NOTE: Thank you for reading my reviews! I’ll never take this website down, but in the interests of streamlining, from 1 January 2025, I’ll be posting new reviews on my writer website, www.maureentai.com, where I post lots of other bookish extras. See you there!

Flash Review: Ocean Meets Sky by The Fan Brothers

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By Maureen Tai, 21 March 2021

In The Fan Brothers’ dreamy picture book Ocean Meets Sky (ages 5+), a Chinese boy named Finn honours his late grandfather by building a boat out of scrap wood and sea junk. After a nap, he embarks on a magical journey, looking for the place his grandfather told him about, where ocean meets sky. Aided by a gargantuan, moustached golden fish, Finn visits fantastical lands, encountering mystical creatures of the sea and of the sky, all gorgeously illustrated in breath-taking, blue-toned spreads. Finn’s story gently suggests that memories can keep a person alive, and that the imagination has the power to heal. (100 words).

NOTE: Thank you for reading my reviews! I’ll never take this website down, but in the interests of streamlining, from 1 January 2025, I’ll be posting new reviews on my writer website, www.maureentai.com, where I post lots of other bookish extras. See you there!

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

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By Maureen Tai, 18 March 2021

The wood was at the center, the hub of the wheel. All wheels must have a hub. A Ferris wheel has one, as the sun is the hub of the wheeling calendar. Fixed points they are, and best left undisturbed, for without them, nothing holds together. But sometimes people find this out too late.

From the Prologue, Tuck Everlasting

I have to remind myself sometimes that when I extoll the virtues of reading “the Classics,” the Great Expectations and Jane Austen that I grew up with are now texts from the mists of antiquity and of absolutely no interest to my modern tween. But we still read together, my thirteen-going-on-eighteen-year old child and I, and we read Tuck Everlasting, as close to a classic as you can get these days. And what a marvellous classic this is.

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Flash Review: Tales from the Inner City by Shaun Tan

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By Maureen Tai, 12 March 2021

One animal is featured in each of the twenty-five Tales from the Inner City, (ages 12+) a collection of pleasantly surreal and hauntingly philosophical short stories by celebrated Australian artist, illustrator and writer, Shaun Tan. Complemented by stunning and evocative artwork, Tan explores the troubled relationship between humans and animals. In deeply meaningful prose, he exposes the banality and pollutive effects of urban existence and suggests that nature – whilst fragile – is infinitely wiser and more resilient than humankind will ever be. This thought-provoking book will appeal to older children seeking to understand their place on this miraculous planet.

NOTE: Thank you for reading my reviews! I’ll never take this website down, but in the interests of streamlining, from 1 January 2025, I’ll be posting new reviews on my writer website, www.maureentai.com, where I post lots of other bookish extras. See you there!