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Summary
Summary
More than anything else in the world, Antonia wants a Mei Mei, little sister, to call her own. But when she and her mother and father fly all the way to China to get her little sister and Antonia finally meets her, she is not at all like Antonia imagined her: She can't walk. She can't talk. She just cries and steals attention. But is her Mei Mei all that bad? This charming personal story from Ed Young follows a little girl as she learns what being a big sister is all about, and discovers the real meaning of family.
Reviews (2)
Horn Book Review
(Primary) An author's note explains that the adoption story Young had originally planned to write became an adoption-sibling story when he and his wife brought home a second baby from China. Their first daughter, Antonia, narrates this tale of her own adoption and her later desire for a younger sister (Mei Mei in Chinese), a wish fulfilled but soon regretted, and the inevitable beginnings of a sisterly bond. Details about Chinese adoption, including the physical therapy the baby needs, add specificity but blend naturally into the book's more universal sibling story. The gouache, pastel, and collage illustrations contain realistic close-up portraits that suit this personal account. Also appropriate for Young's story of his family's blossoming and growth are the floral-patterned fabrics in the art: used as wallpaper-like backgrounds, they provide a homey feel; used as clothing, they create a further, tactile sense of realism. The illustrations early in the book of only-child Antonia playing big sister -- wiping her mom's nose with a tissue and pretending to change her dad's diaper -- help keep the story light, unsentimental, and geared to kids. While her Mei Mei steals all the attention and is not the playmate she expected, defending her against a toy-grubbing toddler makes Antonia feel good, and soon she's busy teaching her little sister all sorts of important things. A satisfying, amusing ending has the girls joining forces -- to ask their parents for another Mei Mei. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Young's own daughters, successively adopted as babies in China, inspire this tender celebration of love flowering between sisters. Narrator Antonia plays at being "Jieh-Jieh"--big sister--with her parents. She wistfully befriends an invisible "Mei Mei"--a younger sister. When she is three, she and her parents fly "the friendly sky to China" to bring a baby Mei Mei home. Terse yet expressive text (rendered the more economical by voluptuous, full-bleed double spreads of collaged florals, pastel and gouache), conveys Antonia's conflicting emotions, from excitement to abandonment, protectiveness to pride. In a particularly lovely spread, Antonia confides, "I help her with reading and math so we can play more board games." Cocooned together among pillows and cats on a flowery ground evoking William Morris textiles, Mei Mei listens as Antonia reads what's clearly a copy of Leo Lionni's Little Blue and Little Yellow. With Antonia garbed in yellow and Mei Mei, bright blue, the composition perfectly evokes the girls' symbiosis. By the close, of course, exhibiting the collusive, boundary-pushing exuberance of young siblings, the girls sweetly ask, "Can we have another Mei Mei?" (author's note) (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.