Fly Free

Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association Honor Book

In this powerful parable that explores the impact of paying it forward, a young girl named Mai inspires a chain of events that brings good things back to her.

When you do a good deed, it will come back to you. Mai loves feeding the caged birds near the temple but dreams that one day she’ll see them fly free. Then she meets a young girl named Thu, and shares the joy of feeding the birds with her. This sets a chain of good deeds in motion that radiates throughout her village and beyond. Set in Vietnam, Roseanne Thong’s inspiring story is elegantly illustrated with watercolor on wood by Eujin Kim Neilan.

Roseanne Thong is the award-winning author of many children’s books, including Wish, Red Is a Dragon, and Round Is a Mooncake. She worked with Vietnamese students in Southern California before traveling to Asia, where she spent 15 years teaching and writing.

Eujin Kim Neilan is the illustrator of Imagine a Dragon by Laurence Pringle, The Best Winds by Laura E. Williams, and The Rabbit and the Dragon King and In the Moonlight Mist: A Korean Tale, both retold by Daniel San Souci. Born in Korea, she now lives in Massachusetts.