Be Careful, Xiao Xin!

June 21, 2022
The bilingual picture book Be Careful, Xiao Xin! shows us how hard it can be for a young child to move towards independence and for a family to keep their little ones safe while beginning the lifelong journey of letting them go. Xiao Xin (‘Little Heart’) is determined to break away from his family who insistently swaddle and overprotect him because they don’t want him to be cold, lost, sick or hurt; they can’t quite accept that he is growing up. Their loving good intentions keep him from blossoming into the Red Fire Warrior he is inside: he knows he can do anything. His dogged yearning for agency and freedom, and his sadness at watching his little sister protected in the same way (‘Don’t let her fall or else she’ll be too scared to try again’) leads him to run away. Alice Pung, who writes widely for varied audiences, seems as comfortable here as in her adult nonfiction. The illustrations are not just an adjunct to the story, but create a subtext of their own, such as the unspoken amorphous shapes intermittently portraying his family as shadow-demons haunting Xiao Xin with their own worries. Although the book will be suitable for younger children, the style and mood of Sher Rill Ng’s illustrations is sometimes quite dark, and the layout approximates some of the graphic novels currently proliferating for older children, making use of panels, distinctive light sources and perspectives, and the superhero imagery of Xiao Xin’s inner self. There is a bit of a gap in the commercial market for bilingual stories that are more than pedestrian or cursory; Be Careful, Xiao Xin! will step right into that empty space. Anica Boulanger-Mashberg is a freelance editor, writer, and reviewer, and has worked as a bookseller at The Hobart Bookshop for over 15 years. 

October 15, 2024
A boy chafes against his protective family in this bilingual tale, presented in both English and traditional Chinese. Fang Xin's worried parents and grandparents constantly call out "Xiao Xin!"--a phrase that translates both to "Be careful" and the nickname "Little Heart." Fang Xin finds himself surrounded by a group of morose, amorphous creatures with glowing eyes--a strong visual metaphor for his frustrations. He notices his elders hovering over his baby sister as she attempts to take her first steps. Feeling a burst of independence, he sneaks out of the house. As his terrified caregivers search for him, flashbacks make it clear that their overprotectiveness is rooted in their own trauma. When they finally find Fang Xin, his little sister toddles toward him. His fearful caregivers hold themselves back; taking his sister's hand, Fang Xin returns to his family, bolstered by a new inner strength. Pung's terse prose pairs well with Ng's detailed art, which makes dramatic use of color and perspective to convey heightened emotions. On one spread, Xin Fang looks on enviously as a white-presenting family embrace their child--a moment that might inadvertently give youngsters the impression that white families are more loving. Overall, though, many readers--especially children of immigrants--will see themselves in this empathetic story of caregivers struggling to give their little ones the freedom to make forays into independence. A visually striking, sensitive look at a family affected by generational trauma but whose love for one another endures.(Picture book. 6-8)

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