Two Drops of Brown in a Cloud of White

October 1, 2020
On a snowy December day in Canada, a little brown-skinned girl and her mother walk home through the slush. But while the little girl delights in the snow, her mother misses the color and heat of warmer seasons. The young protagonist tries to inspire her mother to see beauty in the frozen landscape, but Ma says that she misses the vibrant greens of her home; the protagonist counters that this snowy landscape is their new, shared home. In the end, the mother doesn't quite change her mind but is able to see snow as more than just a nuisance. While the book is well-intentioned and, at times, poetic, the lack of detail about the girl and her mother render the storyline unsatisfying. With the help of Campbell's soft, muted paintings, the author implies that the mother is from a tropical place but never specifies where, nor do readers learn whether the daughter has any knowledge of or love for it. Furthermore, the characters' relationships with snow appear to be a metaphor for the daughter's comfort in Canada and the mother's homesickness for her native place. This opens the door to a false binary implying that immigrants either fully assimilate or never let go of their homeland. Additionally, the tension established by this analogy is never fully resolved, the plot failing to allow for a change in either character. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.8-by-17.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.) This beautifully illustrated picture book oversimplifies the immigrant experience. (Picture book 3-6)

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