We all feel anxious when facing uncertainty or something new, this is normal and each and every one of us experiences it sometimes. This short graphic story reassures us by being with Nhia as she visits grandparents for the first time in a long time.
The illustrations by Karen Donnelly are easy to understand even without words, fun, simple, and delightful.
Well suited for reading alone or WITH someone of any age including ESL, and great for gifting to anyone aged 8-111, but especially to a school, church library, or your local public library!
I requested and received a free temporary uncorrected proof e-book on Adobe Digital Editions from Capstone | Stone Arch Books via NetGalley. Thank you!
Expected publication Aug 01, 2024. #Hmong #Multicultural #MaintainingMentalHealth #Series #Anxiety

Cute and short.

About an anxious girl visiting her Hmong grandparents and fearing that she might not be able to communicate well with them. The comic is peppered with a few Hmong words and (one) food culture. Being a language lover and a home cook, I appreciate these.

Nhia is super nervous about visiting her Hmong grandparents. She loves them and they love her, but they barely speak the same language. Nhia has to conquer her anxiety, one step at a time, to appreciate the visit and her family.

4/5 stars

this was really nice!

this coming-of-age middle grade graphic novel was about a young hmong-american girl named nhia. her mother’s family immigrated to america, so she mostly speaks english- but her grandparents do not. she faces anxiety about communicating when she visits them. to nhia's surprise, she finds that communication and connection can come in many forms.

i do think there were some gaps here and there that left me a bit confused on why a character did something specific; but i also learned that “the nhia normal” is a series, one that you can likely, technically read in any order. i think i jumped into the middle for this book, so the things that confused me were probably further elucidated in other the books. specifically, (and maybe i missed something) i was confused about why nhia didn't want her picture taken and that whole side journey. if it's not in the other books, i think it could have been a bit more fleshed out to give a higher impact at the end.

anyways, this book reflects a common but underrepresented experience that so many kids in america have. the exploration of how nhia views her heritage, family, language, and her place in it all was well done. overall, this short and sweet effort in normalizing cross-cultural anxieties is a much needed addition to kidlit.

i will update my review with a link to where i post it closer to the publishing date :)

A sweet story about a girl who doesn't speak the same language as her grandparents and the anxiety this brings. This is a great way of showing how anxiety can present itself, how it feels and how you can learn to realize things might not be as bad as your anxiety is making it seem.

This book is fantastic. The anxiety representation and Hmong representation is so great to see. I would absolutely love to get an arc of the other three coming out in this series to read and review before it releases. I'm so excited for this series to come out because this would have helped me so much as a child. I feel like it was healing to see an anxious character that works on fighting it but in a realistic way for actual children.

A sweet short story about a young girl who is anxious to visit her grandparents, as they don’t speak English and she struggles to communicate with them. It is well-suited to elementary level readers, with interesting tidbits about Hmong culture, as well as information about how to cope with anxiety. The illustrations are lovely, and Nhia is a very relatable character.

Losing It in Translation is a cute and short book about a girl named Nhia who is anxious about visiting her grandparents because they do not speak the same language. The artwork is nice, though not my style, and the inclusion of Hong culture and language is wonderfully unique exposure in an elementary level graphic novel.

The idea is great, but the execution falls a bit short of where I'd like it to be. The story has a tendency to tell how characters are feeling or what they are doing rather than just showing it, not really making use of its graphic format, and the anxiety plot line isn't particularly well handled in my opinion. The story sets Nhia up as a character who has persistent anxiety issues rather than one who is only anxious in this situation, which makes the resolution of the story much less satisfying. None of the anxiety handling tips in the back of the book are shown being used by Nhia and by the time her anxiety is alleviated it is only because she has gained comfortability in the situation, with no attempts made to help handle the anxiety in other new situations.

A fantastic use of graphic novel form and encouraging story for middle grades(ish) readers. This would be a must-have for classroom bookshelf. I love the themes explored, the relatable characters, and the artistic approach.

This was an adorable graphic novel about anxiety and language barriers. The illustrations were very well done and I might be an adult, but any book with chickens on the cover gets my attention. This is a great read for elementary schoolers and other young readers, but I found it entertaining, even as an adult. I really liked how the author brought in a lesser known Asian culture as well as family heritage and learning to communicate with loved ones. It will be a great addition to library shelves for the next school year.

A short and nice story about a girl with anxiety.

11 years old Nhia, her mother and brother going to visit their grandparents. Here you can see the anxiety that the situation causes for Nhia, because she anticipates that she will not be able to communicate with them because she does not speak Hmong.(an indigenous group in Southeast Asia and East Asia.)

The story explore that things are not so awful like Nhia thought, but lacks in how to deal with it as it explained at the end of the book.

Nice artwork.


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This was such a sweet and clever story about eleven-year-old Nhia who struggles with anxiety while visiting her non-English speaking grandparents. It’s set at a farm and anxiety plays a major role as Nhia thinks the language barrier will affect her stay, however, she soon begins to realize that’s not the case.

This graphic novel was so well written and the illustrations were fascinating. I loved how the story was sweet while also focusing on dealing with anxiety. I loved the coming-of-age story and I’m sure younger readers will too!

🥚🐓🥚🐓🥚🐓🥚🐓🥚🐓🥚🐓🥚

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with access to read this book!

This children's graphic novel is very short and sweet, covering a girl's visit to her grandparents and her anxiety about the language barrier she has with them. The book introduces some Hmong words and some basic coping skills for anxiety, but the story is so rushed that there isn't much time for character development, and there's more telling than showing. I think that this would have been more effective with more space to develop the story, but this is a solid choice for someone looking for a brief book for a reluctant reader.

Nhia is going to visit her grandparent with her mother and brother. She is very nervous because she doesn’t speak the language. Luckily, her grandmother is speaking more English and Nhia is learning more. It was nice to see the strategies Nhia used to cope with her anxiety. I also liked the glossary and coping tips in the back. I like this graphic novel, but I wish it was longer. I feel like we were just getting to know the characters and it ended.

**reviewed from uncorrected eARC via netgalley** (scheduled for publication Aug 01 2024)

children's middlegrade graphic novel (first in series) featuring 11 y.o. Hmong American Nhia who deals with extreme anxiety about most things--in this story she and her family visit her grandparents on their farm. (Author is Hmong American.)

this was super short and I'd love to see more, perhaps three or even all four books in the series together. It's written for tweens but I can easily imagine younger kids getting into the story, maybe 2nd grade and up. Artwork is appealing and fresh; backmatter includes a brief intro to Hmong culture as well as some tips for dealing with anxiety. Keep up the great work~

I decided to read this one because it reminded me of a friend I had in high school: his grandmother spoke Hmong, and he (only speaking English) often felt they were isolated from one another. I feel that this book gave me a little insight into the experience, but not much. There wasn’t really much to this one: each page was basically a drawn-out sentence from the summary provided, lots of telling instead of showing. It was poorly written for a number of concepts that deserves so much more. I hope the character of Nhia and her world get fleshed out more in the coming installations of the series.

This book would appeal most to students who are around middle elementary and may be a great one for reluctant readers.

My thanks to NetGalley and Capstone for access to a digital copy of this book to review.

My children are obsessed with graphic novels, so I was excited to get a copy of this book that portrays an 11 year-old girl who struggles with anxiety. This is a very quick read– just 25 pages of actual story. The illustrations are wonderful and the font is clear and easy to read. The story is a nice depiction of a situation where a child may experience anxiety. The reader sees that Nhia has emotions and reactions they may identify with– and those feelings are “normal.” My criticism is that while the book ends with a list of “Tips for Dealing with Anxiety,” we don’t really “see” Nhia use those tips to deal with her own anxiety. For instance, in a car ride to her grandparents house, we read that she feels like she’s going to throw up and her heart is going a gazillion beats a minute, but she doesn’t seem to have learned what she can do about it. By the end of the story, she realizes her family is there to support her and love her, but she never really expressed her anxiety to them and there doesn’t seem to be any change in her knowledge, other than “they love me anyway.” As a parent, I’d love to see a story where the character learns and employs ways to deal with his or her anxiety. That’s what I want my kids to know. This is, however, the first in a small series. Perhaps Nhia will add to her knowledge in subsequent stories.
Thank you to NetGalley and Capstone publishing for the advance copy. All opinions are my own.

There's a lot of heart in this short book about the challenges of navigating language barriers with older family members. I would have liked the story to be more fleshed out; it resolved very quickly and missed the opportunity to delve more deeply into moments where the main character works to learn new Hmong words from her grandparents. We see that happen so briefly and it could have been a lovely and much more significant storyline. But the overall concept of the book will feel relatable to any child struggling to connect with family elders who don't speak the language they are growing up speaking. Bonus points for inclusion of some details about cooking and how to prepare pho in the traditional Hmong style.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this eARC for unbiased review. This review will be cross-posted to my social media accounts closer to the book release date.

There is nothing wrong with this short graphic novel (perhaps a graphic novella would be a more appropriate term), but I wasn't blown away either. I truly wished there was more, so I could get to know the characters a bit better rather than seeing them over the course of one day, in just 32 pages. After reading it, I saw there were more installments in this series, and I wonder if I'd enjoyed the story more if all these short stories were combined in one publication. While it would still be episodic, it could perhaps also create more of a bond between the main character and the reader.

A nice, compact graphic novel about Nhia, a girl who doesn't speak the language of her grandparents very well, so when she visits them she is filled with anxiety. In the end I think that's what the book is actually about, anxiety, and how to handle it.

The art impressed me, it's very nice.