This book (and others in the Pak-N-Go Girls Adventure series) is awesome for so many reasons, though there is one reason that is especially important. There’s a fun and engaging story. Jess’s parents work with teachers in various countries, so she is used to traveling internationally, but the story takes us easily into how she navigates new cultures with respect and tolerance for things she does not really understand, and with curiosity and joy to see new things and play with kids. In Thailand she gets to meet Nong Mai who is her own age. Nong Mai’s parents are professional counterparts to Jess’s parents. The mystery begins when Jess learns that Nong Mai’s family has had a strange disappearance of an amulet that’s very important to the family. Accidents, explorations, adventures and tricks (how to make and read invisible ink!) ensue. Thailand is a real place that you would want to visit, where children you can relate to live, but which has really cool stuff like elephant rescue compounds and jungle roads and trails in which you can get lost.
The writing is high quality with dialogue and imagery perfect for advanced 2nd graders through maybe as high as 6th or 7th. It has an easy reading level, balanced between including lots of information, short and manageable sentences, engaging pacing, varied vocabulary, and inclusion of words from Thai. The illustrations help show how cool the adventures are and they show us the characters, who happen to be brown and Black.
But for me, best thing is that there’s a way that Jess, the black girl who is the main character, is ordinary. The reader never has to think to themselves «gosh, she can do all this even though she’s a girl!» or «I never knew any Black kids who had parents that were teachers and travelled to other countries.» We need millions of books like this, where ordinary kids can read cool stories peopled by ordinary Black girls, doing awesome, ordinary things. As a 4th grade teacher, I yearn for a flowering of books like this. The Pak-N-Go Girls website has bunches of books that are all multicultural in a variety of cultures and a variety of ways. The website also has a lot of resources for teachers.
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