When Father Comes Home

When Father Comes Home tells an immigrant family’s story from the eyes of a little boy, June. June lives in the new country with mother and his brother Hyun while father lives and works in their home country to provide the family with financial support and offer June and Hyun a brighter educational opportunity. June doesn’t see father often, and the days when father is not home are long. Mother tells them that father is like a goose. He flies home, always, when it is time. So June keeps counting the days and waiting for father to come home. Home becomes a happier place when father comes back – big smiles on mother’s face and more delicious food on the table. Father has many brilliant stories to tell when tucking the brothers in at night. June feels warm and safe when father is by his side. Before father once again leaves, June plants a tangerine tree with June and Hyun – that is June’s favourite fruit, both sweet and sour. He takes care of the tree with all his attention and love, hoping to see father soon again when the tree grows bigger and taller, like him.

Sarah June, both the author and illustrator, shows rather than tells the immigrant family’s experienced stories in this book. The language she uses is descriptive and accessible as if readers are listening to a little boy telling his family story while reading the texts. The colours used in the illustrations are warm, poignant, yet full of hope. I love how Sarah adopts the Korean phrase “goose dad” to “describe fathers who work and live apart from their families, flying back to Korea for long periods to provide for their children’s education” (Jung, 2020). The term provides a contextual understanding, so vividly, for the reader to imagine the father’s role. She also illustrated the image of June’s father into an actual goose (with a shirt and tie), reflecting the intimate yet a bit distant connection with father from the little boy’s perspective. Father becomes a more symbolic figure in the young children’s eyes since he is always far away. Another brilliant symbolic character is the tangerine, a popular fruit in the East Asian community, one which contains two flavors. On the one hand, children from the Asian community recognize this everyday fruit from their homes and easily feel connected to the story setting; on the other hand, isn’t it the perfect representation for June’s two different emotions: the deep sadness of missing father when he is away and the joyful excitement when father comes home? At the book’s conclusion via an author’s note accompanied by a few family photos from Sarah Jung’s childhood, Jung also shares how the story is partly inspired by her own family story.

Though When Father Comes Home is a beautiful and well-written story and the author intentionally uses a calm tone in the storytelling, I got emotional halfway through. It is important to have immigrant families’ experiences recorded in children’s books and shared with the young generation, especially when we live in an increasingly diverse world where families come in different shapes and forms. I see the family stories of my friends and my own in this book. I resonate with June when he accidentally broke the tangerine tree and feared father would never come back because of it. When my three-year-old daughter had to say goodbye to her grandma for the first time since she was born, because grandma who held a visitor’s visa in Canada had to fly back to China after six months, I saw how heartbreaking it was for both of them. June’s experience is one of many immigrant children, and their stories should be written, presented, read, discussed, reflected, and shared. I feel delighted to see When Father Comes Home provide the opportunity for people to learn about these experiences.

I hope When Father Comes Home finds its place in classrooms, community libraries, homes, and other educational settings. I recommend educators pick up this book and learn about immigrant families’ stories alongside young children, parents, and other educators. Making visible immigrant families’ stories and having conversations entering these experiences are crucial in today’s education. Let’s bring diverse perspectives and topics into teaching and learning. And When Father Comes Home can be a perfect stepping stone to start with.