Pie in the Sky

March 18, 2019
Lai centers her incisive illustrated novel debut on Jingwen, who moves from his unspecified home country to Australia with his mother and younger brother Yanghao after his father’s death. The boy mourns the loss of his father and feels like an alien among his fifth-grade classmates as he struggles to learn English, which sounds like “Martian words” (blue-tinged illustrations show others, then the boys, as space aliens in their daily life). Summoning memories of baking with Papa, Jingwen imagines the cakes they’d anticipated selling at Pie in the Sky, the bakery they planned to open upon moving. Jingwen vows to make the 12 cakes, believing this will preserve his memories of Papa—and that “cakes make everything better.” But his baking obsession leads to the betrayal of his hardworking mother’s trust, landing him and Yanghao in hot water. Though repetition of facts and dialogue (including the brothers’ penchant for calling each another “Booger”) at times thwarts the narrative flow, its pace accelerates in the final chapters as Lai adds a few surprise ingredients to concoct a deeply satisfying ending for this heartwarming immigrant story about sibling bonds, honesty, and surmounting obstacles. Ages 8–12.

Narrator Remy Hii balances humor and sorrow in this heartfelt story of new immigrants. Shortly after the death of their father, a baker, 11-year old Jingwen and his little brother, Yanghao, emigrate from China to Australia, where they bake oodles of fanciful cakes to feel closer to the homeland they left behind. Hii accurately captures Jingwen's frustrations with grief, making friends, and learning English on "Mars." As Yanghao, Hii has the perfect squeal of a sugar-hyped but still lovable 9-year-old boy. Conversations in English that are indiscernible to Jingwen are effectively conveyed as high-pitched garble. Though listeners might miss the expressiveness of the original chapter book/graphic novel, this #ownvoices audio offers moments of self-discovery and sweetness. E.A.N. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine