This book gave me goosebumps. Setting off on a quest through two different forests, to discover two different, but equally enchanting truths about dragons, a little boy’s adventures come lavishly to life with edge to edge full color ink illustrations. This book is an exploration of Eastern and Western Dragon mythologies, both true and meaningful celebrations of the child’s mixed cultural identities. It is hard to pick a favorite line, a favorite description or depiction in these pages. This is the kind of book you can read again and again and find a new detail, a new secret hidden in each reading. But the best part is in the end, when we get the sneaky little peak that the wise women who weave stories in the quest are his grandmothers, helping him discover he can travel more than one path and that “Both journeys are yours to take / Both worlds are yours to discover.” This book is made for adventurers, and I wish you many happy explorations to come!
The book is a 2023 Caldecott Honor Book.