Basic elements:
Characters: Juno, grandmother
Setting: Juno is at night
Plot: Juno was looking for his grandma letter
Genre: realistic fiction
This is a heartfelt story written by Soyung Pak. It talks about a boy named Juno who sends letters back and forth with his grandma who lives in Seoul, Korea. Juno cannot read his grandma's written language this time, since his parents are too busy to read for him. As he soon discovers, however, there is a good way to communicate with his grandmother, that is they use pictures to understand each other. This time his grandma sent a picture of her cat and a red and yellow flower. Juno, without having to read the letter, understands more than he thought as the picture and flower tell him so much. By the end of the book, he sends his grandma pictures he drew and a leaf from his swinging tree.
We can learn at least three things in this warm story. First, generational love is an important and warm bond in a family, even when they are long distances and different languages should not affect communication with each other. In the story, Juno and his grandmother don’t speak the same language, but we felt deeply how Juno loves his grandmother even though she lives very far away and how eager he is to write to her. My grandparents and I are also four hours away by plane, and they speak localism, while my sister and I speak Mandarin. Fortunately, we know each other’s daily life through WeChat, sometimes if we don't understand, just explain by simple gestures. I cherish the caring love from my grandparents, that is totally different from my parents.
Second, there's more than one way to communicate with family members. Sometimes, the most meaningful way is the simplest and sincere share with family. Juno and his grandmother discover they both love plants and animals, they share their lives by paintings in the letters. My 4-year-old sister always draws a picture by herself and puts it quietly in my room to apologize. I felt bored at first, but now I understand that she just wants to share her apologies with me in her simple way. Love and caring of family members can be communicated by painting, greeting cards and hugging each other.
Last but not least, I learnt the author’s excellent writing skills from this story. Some beautiful long sentences in the story create a vivid picture to readers. In this story the author makes a similar “shooting start” “soared across” as “plane movement”, and “Like a powdered doughnut” this is a simple and interesting metaphor, grandma’s hairstyle compares with doughnut. Next the author creates a picture from the delicate sensory of hearing and vision, like colors of “red and white” describes the lighting, “golden” is for the season of persimmons ripe.
This is a cute, simple story for us about a boy bonding with his grandmother through the written letter by pictures. It stresses the importance of communication between the generations. Keeping in touch with family members can express our love in a simple way. The beautiful sentences are written with five senses and funny similar skills to make the reader think and create a vivid picture. I highly recommended this story to my peers, especially those who are separated from grandparents by a long distance.
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