A wonderful children's book with exceptional illustrations and a story that every father should read to his son.

Canada and the United States are both countries that were built on immigration, and now, more than ever, people need to be reminded of that fact.

I believe that it is extremely important to read to children and that children should be read to from a diverse selection of books. Kids need to see other cultural groups as no different from themselves. As parents, grandparents and educators, it is our job to ensure we bring up our children without racism. Books like this one are important.

Aside from it's importance as a diverse book, this is also a delightful story of a father and son bonding.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Beautifully written and illustrated, A Different Pond is a touching and timely tale of a father and son fishing in the wee hours of the morning. Really though, it's about much more than that.

What a beautiful picture book. The illustrations are simple and vague-- close in to buildings and streets, so it could be almost any city. Highly recommended.

This book was just splendorous. From the beautiful cover and the dreamy illustrations to the heartwarming stories of immigrants’ hardships. This book touched my immigrant soul is a very special way :) . It took me back to those times with my grand-grandma and grandparents and their Spanish Civil War survival tales [hiding from the bombs, praying to survive, smuggling food through the border to feed their family] and then the stories of heartbreaking poverty and immigrant assimilation I lived to a certain extend as well when I moved to the US and that are my own immigrant tales that I tell my kids when I want to remind them how fortunate they are and how grateful they should be for everything they have. I’m definitely adding this book to Our Familiairum Library!

An emotional story, where poetic words and images work perfectly together to bring to life unforgettable memories. A book to be read not only by children, but by anyone interested to understand immigration life and the struggle any refugee is going through. A very recommended read.

“Dad wakes me quietly so Mom can keep sleeping. It will be hours before the sun comes up.” Thus begins A Different Pond, a lovely, quiet little tale of a young boy who goes fishing with his immigrant father, written by Bao Phi and illustrated by Thi Bui. Together they get up early, pick up bait at the shop, make their way to their usual pond, catch a few fish, then head home just as the sun begins to rise.

One of the major themes of the story is his father’s hard-working nature, something we’re introduced to at the very beginning, when the young boy tells us his dad has been up for hours preparing their food and packing the car. Only a few pages later we learn they’re leaving so early because his father has taken a second job. And when he takes his father’s hand as they move through the undergrowth to the pond, he can feel “callouses on his hand when he squeezes mine.”

Immigration and its attendant difficulties is another theme. Besides the multiple jobs, we learn that kids at the boy’s school make fun of his father’s accent, says it “sounds like a thick, dirty river.” To our narrator though, “his English sounds like gentle rain.” When they reach the pond, the boy mentions how sometimes they share the fishing spot with another immigrant, a man from Hmong who “speaks English like my dad.” There’s a nice subtle touch of outsiders bonding not just with the two immigrants but how they also share the pond at times with a “black man . . . show shows me his colorful lure collection.”

Phi is subtle as well in how he shows us the way in which his narrator has learned from his father. While his father sets up, the narrator makes a fire, clearly following his father’s teachings, and his pride is evident when he is able to light it with just one match and his “my father nods.”

The most understated aspect, though, is the sorrowful nature of his father’s past. While they fish, his father mentions doing the same by a pond back in Vietnam, and the tragic consequences of that war becomes clear when the father looks away silently when the boy asks if those fishing trips had been with his father’s brother. Then we’re told his father doesn’t speak much about the war, though he does know that “He and his brother fought side by side. One day, his brother didn’t come home.”

After some successful fishing, they head back, with the young boy wondering “what the trees look like at that other pond, in the country my dad comes from.” Back home, his tired mom greets them, smiling at their haul, and his father changes into his work clothes, getting ready for his new job. His mother too has to go to work, reminding his brothers and sister to look after their “baby brother.” But, he tells, us, he is not a baby; after all, “I helped catch dinner.” That night, he knows, they’ll eat their caught fish and swap stories, his dad will listen with “half-closed” eyes (due to being so tired from his work), and later, in bed, they will both “dream of fish in faraway lands.” That “we” is a brilliant little touch, conveying not just a young boy’s curiosity about his family’s homeland, but an immigrants longing for the familiarly beautiful land of his birth.

The illustrations nicely match the understated style of the text, employing soft, muted colors — most often a warm blue and beige-brown— and clear, simple lines. The shift from the blue palette of the fishing trip to a soft yellow back home creates a sense of warm coziness, one highlighted by the image of all them gathered around the dinner table—seven people in close confines all engaged with one another. The final image is of the boy in bed with a dream pond filled with swimming fish above his head, creating large ripples. An appropriate (and again, subtle) final image, for this is a book about ripples—the effects of war and immigration. This is a story that young children can enjoy on their own, but its quiet nature and subtlety cry out for it to be read aloud and discussed.

A little boy and his father go fishing early on a Saturday morning. As they fish you learn that the family has recently come to American from Vietnam where the father lost a brother in the war, and they are fishing for dinner because things in America are so expensive.

This is a quiet book. The color tones are muted and cool, largely to set the tone of fishing before the sun comes up. But it is also quiet in theme. On the surface, it’s just a book about a fishing trip, not anything super high in action or excitement. But the simple act of fishing helps give an idea of what life was like in Vietnam, the struggles this immigrant/refugee family is having adjusting to life in the States, as well as being a little bit about a boy finding his place in a big busy family. I know in the past, even as a child, I saw people fishing and keeping fish from areas I would have been wary of eating fish from. But this picture book, without preaching, explains why fishing may be not only handy but necessary for some low income families. It will help build some understanding and hopefully empathy. In addition, I don’t know that I can name any other picture books about the immigrant/refugee experience of Vietnamese in the 1980s. Those immigrant/refugee kids from then are now at the age where they have kids and stories like this will be helpful for that next generation (and of course the world at large) to understand where their parents and grandparents came from and what they went through. So I applaud this book for filling a gap in children’s lit, and I love that the author and illustrator both share a Vietnamese background. My only qualm with the book is that I’m not sure how it will go over with the target audience. It might be too quiet and subdued and the colors might be too muted to catch the interest of today’s kids. The illustrator does some very creative things with perspective that kids may need help understanding. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give this a read with kids you know. It might be a good bedtime story with the muted colors and simple story. And it would definitely be an option for classes studying the Vietnam war or immigrants and refugees. Recommended for those trying to build their immigrant/refugee selection.

An interesting and unique story. I liked it but will not likely purchase it for my school library. I don't see the kids relating much to it. As an adult, I enjoyed it.

A beautiful little book about a relationship between a father and son. And why they came to America.

What a beautiful story of a child with immigrant parents. His observations are kind and emphatic because he has seen the world through multiple pairs of eyes, his parents, his peers, his own. A very gentle story that shows the hard work and struggles many immigrant families face in America today.

This is a seemingly simple story of a young boy going fishing with his father but it is so much more than that. The respect the young boy has for his father is evident, the father and mother instilling a work ethic in their son is touched upon along with loss of family members. This story reminded me so much of going fishing with my own father when I was younger and brought back great memories.

The main character of this illustrated book is a Vietnamese child, whose family has moved to the US.
The family is very poor, the parents have to perform two jobs to support their children. Everyone plays a role in order to help others.
The relationship between father and son is outlined in a beautiful manner. The tenderness with which the child says "I can help" and the kindness with which his father allows him to do so, is a touching scene.
Poverty is not necessarily a place of violence.
Between the writer of the story and the illustrator there must have created a strong sharing, in fact the images fit perfectly with the story.

Il protagonista di questo libro illustrato è un bambino vietnamita che insieme alla sua famiglia si è trasferito negli Usa.
La famiglia è molto povera, i genitori devono svolgere due lavori per poter mantenere i figli. Ognuno svolge un ruolo per poter aiutare gli altri.
Il rapporto tra padre e figlio è tratteggiato in maniera splendida. La tenerezza con cui il bambino dice "posso aiutare" e la gentilezza con cui il padre gli permette di farlo, è una scena commovente.
Non necessariamente la povertà è luogo di violenza.
Tra lo scrittore della storia e l'illustratrice deve essersi creata una forte condivisione, infatti le immagini si adattano alla perfezione alla storia.

A beautifully illustrated story about a boy and his father going fishing in the early morning - for food, not for fun. A lovely, and very timely story about refugee families in the US.

A Different Pond by Bao Phi is a children's book about a family who came to America (Minnesota) from Vietnam as refugees.

The story is mainly about Bao and his father's trip to the pond to fetch dinner. During the trip, Bao learns about why his mom and dad have to work so hard for a living as everything has an expense.

It's a simple read for young children and the illustrations keep their interest. The book has a graphic novel feel to it and has an artsy appearance. It's no surprise as the illustrator is Thu Bui, a favorite that we learned about this year after reading <i>The Best We Could Do.</i>

The story feels genuinely real and the message is powerful. I loved the conclusion and author's note. This is a wonderful book for schools and libraries.

5*****