Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Chang's fictionalized graphic memoir delves into the complexities of a family harboring a secret: Cindy's father moved back to Taiwan four years ago, leaving her, her mother, and her older sisters on their own in San Francisco. Cindy is shy and quiet, but excerpts from her journal accented by doodles reveal a twelve-year-old full of emotion. While she longs for a picture-perfect family, her mother is overwhelmed with household responsibilities and her older sisters are focused on college. Her grandmother's death reunites the fractured family in Taipei, where Cindy learns the truth about why her father left. She discovers her authentic voice and embraces vulnerability to deepen her relationships with those around her. The panel-to-panel flow is occasionally broken up by tight panels showing her phone as she inspects a photo or her hands as she draws pictures, bringing readers closer to the protagonist's inner world. Chang's animated facial expressions reveal her vibrant personality and lighten the mood. Colors range from warm hues to soft and muted shades. Nostalgic earth tones are used in a flashback to her mother's difficult backstory, while darker reds and pinks are used after a pivotal cathartic moment. (c) Copyright 2025. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A San Francisco sixth grader grapples with the burden of keeping a heavy family secret. In this debut graphic novel inspired by the author’s own life, Taiwanese American Cindy lives with Ma and older sisters Jess, a Yale-bound senior, and Em, a student at Stanford. Bàba lived with them, too—until he moved back to Taiwan four years ago, ostensibly for work. Their father’s absence is a confusing situation the girls have been instructed to keep secret. When the teacher of avid, talented artist Cindy encourages her to enter a contest with the theme “What Family Means to Me,” she’s torn between revealing the uncomfortable, murky truth and wanting to depict a “perfect” family; she harbors secret hopes that winning with an idealized portrait might encourage Bàba to come home. During a sudden family trip to Taiwan to attend their paternal grandmother’s funeral, the sisters learn why Bàba really left. Will Cindy be able to express her feelings and portray her family’s complicated truth? The appealing cartoon-style illustrations have soft, saturated tones, emphasizing the characters’ facial expressions and making their complex, shifting, and overlapping emotions ring true. The panels and perspectives are creatively varied, and interspersed pages from Cindy’s journal highlight her inner thoughts. Chang makes the emotional strain that emerges from secrecy clear, and the book refreshingly and bracingly addresses the topic of non-nuclear Asian American family configurations. A moving portrayal of a family processing fraught, messy changes.(Graphic fiction. 9-13) Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.