From Paj Ntaub’s clothing, the pairing of the Hmong skirts with the everyday shirts, the rugs the boys are playing on as Paj Ntaub’s father tells her that Ruth has died, to the egg rolls her Tais Tais is making. “There are many different levels to the reading and emotional experience of the story. Yang describes how the textures depicted in her book illustrate more than just the story on the pages. Though A Map Into the World features a young Hmong girl, Paj Ntaub, and elements that are distinctly Hmong such as the story cloth, the book is a beautifully touching story about life, kindness, and community. “Regardless of age or circumstances, inside each and every one of them is a store of beauty and joy, a world, that will be for others in moments of need, a map or a story cloth into life.” According to Yang, it is a message that all young people need to hear. That book, A Map Into the World (Carolrhoda Books, 2019), is the story of a young girl’s discovery of the changing seasons in a year, the cycle of life, and the power of kindness and love. Afterward, he asked, ‘What did you draw for me?’ They had really drawn a map into the world for him. One particularly hard day, we walked over and my daughter and my sister’s children asked if they could draw on his driveway. I’d crossed the street with the children to visit with him. Bob grieved on the bench they shared in their open garage, looking upon our yard. That is, until she met Bob.Įditor Carol Hinz, author Kao Kalia Yang, and Bob in May 2019 It was that desire to help a grieving man find his way back to life that also led Yang into the world of children’s picture books.Īn accomplished and award-winning author in her own right, Yang had focused her writing on giving voice to the Hmong community and culture in America. He saw and felt only emptiness.Ĭhildren do not always see emptiness where there is an open space, but they seem compelled to help relieve the sadness of others. The bench he had once shared with his wife looked into Kao Kalia Yang’s yard, but the solitary man did not see the yard.

A Map Into the World by Kao Kalia Yang