Here and There – Mom Read It

Here and There, by Thea Lu, (Apr. 2024, Eerdman Books for Young Readers), $19.99, ISBN: 9780802856234

Ages 5-8

Two people live very different lives, but happenstance brings them together for a moment. Dan owns a cafe on a coastal town, and Aki is a sailor, always on the go. Dan is a homebody who draws comfort from his routine, but every now and then, he wonders what more there is “out there”. Aki “lives life like a nomadic gull, always on the wing”; he loves the color of his world, with all different sights to see, but sometimes he wonders what it might be like to have a place to call home. Each, in his own way, feels distanced from the world. They each find joy in the connections they make: Dan, with the travelers who visit his cafe, and Aki, from the people he encounters when he goes ashore. As each man looks over their keepsakes, readers will discover that Dan and Aki have crossed paths once, and that it is a special memory for both. Here and There is about connection and life: Dan’s keepsakes are like “little windows, each opening a piece of the world to him” and Aki’s photos are like “little houses, each bringing a sense of home”. Dan looks out, while Aki looks in, and the one time they met, they felt less alone. Dan’s illustrations are rendered largely in shades of brown, for his homebound-land living existence, and Aki’s are shaded mainly in blue, noting his oceanic life. The spare text reads beautifully, yet with an aching loneliness as each character goes about his solitary existence, warming as the two interact with others. A lovely story about yearning connection and a great addition to picture book collections. Here and There has a starred review from Foreword Reviews.

Visit Thea Lu’s website for some exciting ideas for kids’ crafts.

Here and There, by Tamara Ellis Smith/Illustrated by Evelyn Daviddi, (March 2019, Barefoot Books), $16.99, ISBN: 9781782857419

Ages 4-8

Ivan is a biracial child who splits his time between his two homes: Here, where he lives with his mother, and There; his father’s new home. Here, Ivan is comfortable; he sits in a tree and chatters with the birds. There, he curls into a chair, pulled into himself, ignoring his father’s attempts to engage him. Dad knows how to reach his son, though: he starts playing a song on his guitar, and Ivan can’t stop the good feelings from flowing through him. As Ivan negotiates living Here and There, he knows there is music, there are birds, and there are people who love him at each place.

Here and There is a touching story about living as a child in a divorced family. Being taken out of his comfort zone; his home, makes Ivan feel off-balance. He isn’t Here, with the familiar; he’s There. He may even feel different around his father, bein gin this different place, with his father not where he’s supposed to be. But music builds a bridge between father and son: Ivan has an affinity for music, as we s

ee early on, when he chatters with the birds in his mother’s home. Once his father’s guitar music opens the door to conversation, Ivan reaches a new comfort zone, and finds himself discovering new birds in his father’s neighborhood, too. He’s building a new life for himself, understanding and working through feeling guilty for being happier in one place or another.

Here and There will speak to many kids who split their time between two households. The text uses the concepts of “Here” and “There” to explain Ivan’s familiarity and initial discomfort as he learns to navigate between his mother’s and father’s home. The pencil, acrylic paint, and collage artwork presents multiracial characters with soft, gentle facial features. Back matter includes 12 different birdcalls, with phonetic pronunciation, for kids to try out. Display and booktalk with The Mirror in Mommy’s House/The Mirror in Daddy’s House by Luis Amavisca, which uses a mirror to connect a child with two households.