Bao's Doll

Based on author/illustrator Bo Lu’s childhood as an immigrant from Taiwan adjusting to life in rural Kansas, this touching picture book captures the distressing divide that some newcomer children experience between themselves and their parents, who are working long hours to make a living in a new land and have little time to pay attention to their children’s emotional needs.

When young Bao is invited to a birthday party, she wants to have what the birthday girl has—a party with friends, balloons, a cake, and most importantly, “a very special, very expensive, All-American Artist Amanda doll.” But Mama is too busy to be aware of Bao’s desires and her longing to be like the other girls.

Often Mama tells Bao that when she was a little girl in Taiwan, she had nothing. Each time, Bao tunes Mama out because she’s heard the stories so many times. Sadly, “Mama did not understand Bao, and Bao certainly did not understand Mama.”

The next time Mama and Bao are in a department store, Bao feels frustrated and angry: why can’t she have an All-American Artist Amanda doll? Bao takes things into her own hands and steals a doll. When she’s caught moments later, she feels ashamed and weighed down by grief and alienation from Mama.

Bao finally says sorry to Mama, and Mama begins to talk about when she was little. Though Bao wants to close her ears, she listens to Mama’s story of her life in an orphanage and how she wanted nothing more in the world than to be with her own mother. When Mama takes out an old tin filled with small items from her childhood, Bao’s heart softens. Then, together “they made a doll from Mama’s memories and Bao’s hopes.”

In an author’s note, Bo Lu recalls the doll she stole and her mother’s lack of response when she was found out: “This experience revealed a distance between me, my friends, and my mother. As much as we love the people around us, sometimes we don’t really understand each other. We feel distant, even when they’re right next to us. I hope my book offers a space to forgive, understand, and connect with ourselves and one another.”

Bo Lu’s sparse, sensitive narrative and vivid, emotive illustrations adeptly capture the struggles, growing pains, and new beginnings of newcomer children and their parents.

(Abrams Books for Young Readers)