Gibberish by Young Vo
5 stars
Content warning Spoilers!
This sweet book tells the story of Dat, a boy who is beginning at a new school where he does not know the language. Everything sounds like gibberish to him, and he struggles to find his place within the school. You can feel Dat's frustration as he tries to make friends, read, and learn a new language alone. Finally, to Dat's relief, a student seeks out his friendship and begins to help him learn this new language.
While the words tell a beautiful story, the illustrations do an amazing job of bringing the words to life. The pictures depict Dat as a human boy, while all of the other students around him are drawn as monsters. This visual helped me truly feel how Dat must have felt in this new world - scared. Also, Dat is portrayed in color from the start of the book, while the other students and his surrounding are in black and white. After Dat meets his new friend, Julie, she appears as a human child, in color. This shows how the friendship between Dat and Julie help him to feel more secure, and also like he is getting some of his color back. The author also chose to use symbols in the book to represent the gibberish that Dat hears while he is listening to his teacher and other students, and to show the words in the books also are indecipherable to him.
This book portrayed all three concepts of mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors for me. I believe my students would share the same sentiment. This book provided mirror opportunities because at some point we all have felt like we do not belong or have been scared or nervous in our present environment. We have also felt alone at various points in life, searching for a friend or a familiar person. This book provided window opportunities because Dat felt these things above because he did not speak the same language as his peers and adults in the building. I have never had the experience of not being able to communicate my wants and needs with someone who did not understand. I have never felt alone because of a language barrier. This story also provided sliding glass door moments because I could feel the ache that Dat was feeling as he struggled to communicate and find a safe place. Both the words and the illustrations helped me live Dat's experiences, and I felt connected to him as a character and person despite not having experienced his specific experiences. Overall, this was a great book, and I can't wait to add this to my classroom library.