Nana, Nenek & Nina

PreS-Gr 1--Nina, who is around age five or six, has one grandma in Malaysia and another in England, and gets to visit both in this clever same-and-different book that is Ferneyhough's debut. Images of Nina's home "in-between" the grandmas show the Golden Gate bridge; she flies toward the sunrise for one visit, and toward the sunset for the other. Differences abound, but spotting similarities is also fun and instructive. Food is mostly different but a little similar; sand is the same; temperatures are different; the moon is the same. The most important similarity is the feeling Nina has for her grandmothers, and they have for her. The detailed but clearly drawn illustrations show Malaysian art, English teacups, and American guitars. Mama and Nenek are light brown; Dad and Nana are pale; no one is idealized. Speech bubbles contain short duplicated phrases in Nenek's Malay and Nana's English (with pronunciation help for some words). Even Nana's English isn't the same as American English! VERDICT Nina's comfort in very-far-apart places, her facility with languages, and her love for family mean that this engaging book will widen the world for young listeners and their families, no matter their locations or origins.--Patricia Lothrop

Simultaneous portrayals cleverly elevate Ferneyhough's picture book debut, on every spread tracing a child visiting grandmothers "on opposite sides of the world"--England and Malaysia. When light-brown-skinned Nina and her family fly "toward sunrise" from San Francisco to visit white-presenting Nana, she wears her wellies into the garden, plays noughts-and-crosses on Daddy's old board, and eats beans for breakfast, all shown on verso pages. When she flies "toward sunset" to visit Nenek, who is portrayed with brown skin, corresponding recto pages show Nina wearing her selipar around the halaman, playing congkak on Mama's old set, and eating beans for dessert. Each balanced spread is full of eye-catching specificities that take readers through daily experiences: in equivalent bathing scenes, a toilet chain and rubber ducky appear in a seafoam-blue British bathroom, set across from lizards on the pale-yellow Malaysian bathroom wall. Balancing images, patterns, and hues, these juxtapositions convey the ease with which Nina lives in three cultures--and the affection she receives in each--in a book that conveys differences and similarities bound together by love, and offers a joyful narrative of multicultural childhood. Ages 4-8. (Aug.)