El Deafo meets "Inside Out" and "Back Again" in this funny, emotional illustrated middle-grade debut novel about immigrating to Australia, being upstaged by an annoying little brother, baking cakes and overcoming loss. When Jingwen moves to Australia, he feels like he's landed on Mars. School is torture, making friends is impossible, since he doesn't speak English, and he's stuck looking after his (extremely irritating) little brother, Yanghao. To distract himself from the loneliness, Jingwen daydreams about making all the cakes on the menu of the bakery his father had planned to open ... |
