Noodle & Bao

Noodle & Bao is a well written and beautifully illustrated all-ages book about community and standing up for what we believe in written by Shaina Lu. Due out 15th Oct 2024 from HarperCollins on their Quill Tree imprint, it's 224 pages and will be available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats. 

Momo, Bao, and their families live in Town 99, a tightly knit community of folks with restaurants, bookstores, and everything else they need. Their entire community is threatened when Ms. Jujube starts buying up and "improving" their town, raising rents so much that many of the residents can't afford to live there anymore.

This thought provoking accessible novel has a lot of good takeaways for everyone: gentrification, strength in diversity, the power in collective grassroots action, and depending on our friends (instead of trying to do everything alone). 

The art is full of small details which invite readers to take a closer look. Much of the dialogue is bilingual in several Asian language as well as English (the author explains her reasoning in an afterword). There are also a number of pages with suggested discussion topics for classroom or book club discussion. There's also a reassuring diversity of characters, one of whom is nonbinary.

Four and a half stars. This would be an excellent choice for public or school library acquisition, home or classroom use. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.