Amy Wu and the Warm Welcome

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Author(s)

Kat Zhang

Publisher

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Genre(s)

Age Range

Release Date

May 03, 2022

ISBN

1534497358

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Amy Wu does her best to make her new classmate feel welcome in this warmhearted and playfully illustrated follow-up picture book to Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao and Amy Wu and the Patchwork Dragon.

Amy’s class has a new student from China! Amy tries hard to make Lin feel included, but she can’t draw him out of his shell. Then she sees Lin chattering happily in Chinese with his family. The gears in her head start to turn, and a plan blossoms. Step one: invite Lin to her dumpling party…

With a little help from her grandma and a shiny new banner, can Amy give Lin the warmest welcome?

Editor review

1 review

Teaching Young Students to be Welcoming

October 10, 2022

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

In this latest installment of the Amy Wu series, a new student, Lin, joins Ms. Mary's class. Lin has just moved from China and doesn't speak much English, and seems embarassed when the class greets him. At lunch, both Amy and Lin have dumplings, and Amy tries to engage the new boy in a conversation, mentioning that she is having a dumpling party that evening. She also tries to get him to play pirates, but he doesn't respond. He also can't share any words about his love of soccer during show and tell, although he clasps a soccer ball. After school, Amy sees Lin picked up by his family, and sees how glad he is to be able to speak with them. Amy convinces her mother to invite the new family to the party, gets her grandmother to help her with Chinese characters on a welcome poster, and learns to greet Lin in Chinese, even though it makes her feel red faced! Even though they don't speak the same language, the two are able to share experiences and get along.

Good Points

Amy is an engaging character who cares for her classmates and really wants to make Lin feel welcome in the classroom, but struggles with how to accomplish this. She is probably in early elementary school, and I love how she consults the adults in her life to help her with her struggle. She observes the world around her with keen insight, and even though it is difficult for her, works to make her classmate feel that he is not alone.

The illustrations are bright and show a lot of detail about the classroom and the dumpling party at Amy's house. It's good to see a diverse cast of people, and to see Amy welcome them all. The other classmates are also welcoming to Lin, and follow Any's lead. My favorite part of the book might be Amy's cat, who shows up in most of the illustrations and is cute and fluffy, with great expressions!

While classroom libraries definitely have a need for books that show students how to welcome newcomers, they are great for home use as well, especially when they feature a beloved character like Amy Wu. Include this with a list of similar books that includes Olsen's Our Class is a Family, Bullard's A New Classmate, and Joseph's Martin's New Classmate