Our Lake
(A Caldecott Honor Book)
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
CALDECOTT HONOR BOOK • A tender and vulnerable exploration of love and loss that follows two boys as they take their first trip back to the lake without their father, from debut author-illustrator Angie Kang.
Today, Brother is taking me up to swim in the lake like Father used to.
I want to thank him for bringing us here, but I can’t find the words.
Instead, I loop my arms around his torso, and he does the same back.
Here, in our lake, the water holds us close.
On a sweltering hot day, a little boy mirrors his brother as he takes off his shirt, stretches, and walks toward the edge of the tall rock, ready to dive into the cool lake waters glistening below. Only this time, Father is not here. And the water looks so far away. How can he take the plunge?
With a gorgeous, deft touch in her exquisitely soft illustrations and words, Angie Kang conveys vulnerability, longing, and connection as these two boys hear Father’s laugh and see his memory all around them, uniting them in a bittersweet moment.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kang debuts with a deeply felt story about siblings returning to a cherished place—"Brother is taking me up to swim in the lake like Father used to." In loosely painted, expressive gouache, crayon, and colored pencil spreads, two figures head up a slope amid deeply saturated blues, greens, and magentas. The duo prepare to swim in the bright sun: "Brother takes off his shirt. I take off my shirt. Brother stretches. I stretch." After Brother dives easily off a rock into the water, the younger sibling freezes, the sequence capturing each beat of the child's overwhelm ("How did I ever do this before?"). Then the image of a bearded man in a jaunty red hat appears ("On the inside of my eyelids, I see Father"). Next, Father's reflection materializes in the water, and the child's diving in offers a kind of reunion. Kang pictures the dreamlike moment the two meet, hands out-stretched ("He has my nose and my eyes"). Foregrounding the hard work of moving forward, this story about loss offers a vision of a place where "we are all together." Characters are portrayed with dark hair and pale skin. Ages 4–8.
