A Different Pond
by Bao Phi
illustrated by Thi Bui
August 1, 2017
ISBN 978-1623708036
A Different Pond, written by celebrated poet/author Bao Phi and illustrated by graphic memoirist Thi Bui, has received excellent reviews and multiple awards, including the 2018 Caldecott Honor and the APALA Picture Book Award.
A Different Pond follows Bao, a Vietnamese American boy, on a hushed early morning fishing trip with his father. Bui’s sumi ink brushwork and digital coloring capture the inky quality of the sky before sunrise, the chill of late autumn, and the quiet, emotional moments in between. The book is full of rich glimpses into Bao’s interior life. While driving to the bait store, Bao remembers how a kid at school said his dad’s accented English sounds like “a thick, dirty river”. To Bao, his English sounds like “gentle rain”. A close-up of Bao’s expression creates empathy with the reader: one experiences the hollow feeling of otherness generated by his classmate’s comment, underscored by the lonely predawn street, and then the uplifting warmth of Bao’s love for his father’s voice.
As his father sets up to fish, Bao carefully assembles twigs and rocks to make a fire. They wait for fish to bite and Bao’s father speaks of fishing by a pond like the one they sit by now with his brother, long passed. Both their faces lit by firelight, Bao turns to his father hoping to hear more; his father looks out over the water, into the past. After catching a few fish they head for home, and Bao wonders “what the trees look like at that other pond, in the country my dad comes from.” At home Bao’s parents get ready for work even though it’s Saturday (they have multiple jobs). Bao is proud of helping to take care of his siblings and helping his father catch fish. The story then shifts to future tense as Bao looks forward to dinner that night with fried fish, rice, and fish sauce (echoed in the old Miracle Whip jar full of fish sauce in the endpapers), and imagines he’ll dream of “fish in faraway ponds”.
The book concludes with notes from the author and illustrator (both Vietnamese American) on creating the book. Bui writes of the household paraphernalia that “add up to hold something of what it was like to be me, and alive, in a specific time and place.” Noticing these markers throughout the book is at once an act of discovery and recognition. When Phi became a father, he wanted to honor the struggle of his parents, who shared their stories with him so that he would understand their lives. This book passes “along a version of our story with those same intentions.” Together, Phi and Bui have crafted a story that will speak to generations of children and their families and inspire them to look on ponds both near and far.
Review by Shanna Kim