When Father Comes Home

by Sarah Jung, Sarah Jung (Illustrator)

Overview

From stunning debut talent Sarah Jung comes a heartwarming and beautifully told story about family, planting roots, and standing tall in the face of your fears.

June's father is like a goose — he flies away for long periods of time, which means that June doesn't get to see him very often. So he is happy when Father comes home from his journeys, and happier still when the family plants a tangerine tree together and Father tells June, "Next time I am here, this tree will be bigger, and so will you." Caring for a growing sapling is a great responsibility and June takes it very seriously. When an accident happens and the tree topples over, June worries his family will change forever. But things that have fallen can be replanted, and sometimes facing our biggest fears reveals our greatest strengths.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781338355703
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	11/10/2020
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	415,635
Product dimensions:	9.70(w) x 11.30(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD500L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Sarah Jung was born in Maine and grew up in Vancouver, Canada. She has a BFA in Illustration, Creative Writing and Book Arts from Maryland Institute College of Art. Sarah now resides in Baltimore, Maryland, as an illustrator and children's book creator alongside her friends and their little cat Remi. Follow her @sarahjungart and on sarahjungart.squarespace.com.

Editorial Reviews

10/19/2020

June and his older brother return home from school and see a big pair of shoes by the door—their father is back for a rare visit. Jung’s digitally rendered pictures, with soft, glowing earth tones and pencil textures, show a house that brightens considerably with the father’s presence: June’s “mother is happier, and the food smells more delicious.” The family slips into familiar rhythms, and before Father must leave again, they plant a tangerine tree (June’s favorite fruit): “Next time I am here, this tree will be bigger, and so will you.” Readers will immediately notice that Father is no ordinary parent: he has the head and wings of a goose, and the afterword explains that this story and depiction is inspired by the Korean phrase “goose dad,” which describes “fathers who work and live apart from their families, flying back to Korea for long periods of time” to support their children’s educations. But debut creator Jung’s deeply affecting storytelling, with its seamless blending of fairy tale elements, melancholy, patience, and hope, should open up the story for a wide range of readers. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

2020-09-29
A young Korean boy’s feeling of longing is captured in this story of a father who works far away from his family.

“Will Father come home tomorrow?” asks June, a young Korean boy, of his mother. Curiously, a photo of the father dreamily transforms in the accompanying illustration into the shape of a goose flying across the sky. The next day, June and his older brother, Hyun, return from school, rushing into the arms of a goose dressed in a shirt and tie. Scenes of a happy family quickly pass by, with the affectionate father consistently depicted as an anthropomorphic goose. Soon enough, there is “a goodbye that happens often,” as June embraces his father before he flies away again. The author’s note reveals the Korean phrase, gireogi appa, which literally means goose dad. (Literal-minded readers befuddled by the goose symbolism might wish this information had appeared in an introduction.) Jung describes a lifestyle in which fathers work and live apart from their families to provide for their children’s education. The sacrifice, however noble, has consequences. Debut author/illustrator Jung captures the tender emotions through images in a warm color palette of peaches and browns. The writing, however, lacks cohesion, with limited flow between the pages. Still, the pain of missing a parent, which this book captures, is one many children will recognize.

Striking illustrations carry the load in this heartfelt story of parental absence. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews