* 2019 Feng Zikai Chinese Children’s Picture Book Award
A young girl’s little brother has been in the hospital for several weeks. She misses him very much, and wants to take him to the zoo. Her love and attention help bring the zoo to him.
A young girl hasn’t seen her brother in ages. He’s been in the hospital for weeks, unable to come. Does he miss her? she wonders. He gets so many shots and has to sleep by himself at night; he really is a brave boy. So much has happened to her over the past few weeks – she’s learning to swim and to read, and their class went to the zoo for a field trip. She really wants to take her brother to the zoo with her.
We hear the sister’s hopes, expectations, and confused anxieties mount as her excited stories and questions for her brother pile up. The animals of the zoo accompany her hopes and fears all the way to her brother’s bedside, to care for and protect him until that decisive moment his sister so little understands. Together they bring him home, in whichever sense of the term you choose.
