Be Careful, Xiao Xin! (Alice Pung, illus by Sher Rill Ng, Working Title Press)

The bilingual picture book Be Careful, Xiao Xin! shows us how hard it can be for a young child to move towards independence and for a family to keep their little ones safe while beginning the lifelong journey of letting them go. Xiao Xin (‘Little Heart’) is determined to break away from his family who insistently swaddle and overprotect him because they don’t want him to be cold, lost, sick or hurt; they can’t quite accept that he is growing up. Their loving good intentions keep him from blossoming into the Red Fire Warrior he is inside: he knows he can do anything. His dogged yearning for agency and freedom, and his sadness at watching his little sister protected in the same way (‘Don’t let her fall or else she’ll be too scared to try again’) leads him to run away. Alice Pung, who writes widely for varied audiences, seems as comfortable here as in her adult nonfiction. The illustrations are not just an adjunct to the story, but create a subtext of their own, such as the unspoken amorphous shapes intermittently portraying his family as shadow-demons haunting Xiao Xin with their own worries. Although the book will be suitable for younger children, the style and mood of Sher Rill Ng’s illustrations is sometimes quite dark, and the layout approximates some of the graphic novels currently proliferating for older children, making use of panels, distinctive light sources and perspectives, and the superhero imagery of Xiao Xin’s inner self. There is a bit of a gap in the commercial market for bilingual stories that are more than pedestrian or cursory; Be Careful, Xiao Xin! will step right into that empty space.

Anica Boulanger-Mashberg is a freelance editor, writer, and reviewer, and has worked as a bookseller at The Hobart Bookshop for over 15 years. 

Category: Daily newsletter Review Junior Reviews