Author Mary Lee Donovan
Illustrator Lian Cho
Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
My Thoughts:
This is a beautiful book about diverse communities around the world and the call to welcome the stranger in their own language, as well as to offer peace and refuge, especially with food and drink. The final blessing for the reader is just beautiful:
May you never know hunger. May peace fill your nights. May your children's children grow strong in the light. May the road rise to meet you, and the walls fall away. A hundred thousand welcomes I sing, I sign, I pray.
The back material of this book identifies the language origins, a note about pronunciation and notes from the author and the artist. I love how even picture book authors are punching back in their own way and I am honored to be able to read these.
From Mary Lee Donovan:
I am not a marcher. I am not a rally-er. I am not a fist shaker. I am not a knitter of hats or a waver of signs. My rage boils down, instead, to ink. This particular river of ink is my love song to our shared humanity and it is my protest against intolerance, injustice, and inhumanity.
Me too! Thank you Ms. Donovan.
To add to the connections of welcome around the world, I wanted to share an ʻōlelo noʻeau or wise saying from my own native Hawaiian community:
He ʻai leo ʻole, he ʻīpuka hāmama. Food unaccompanied by a voice; a door always open. Said about the home of a hospitable person. The food can be eaten without earing a complaint from the owners, and the door is never closed to any visitor.
From the Publisher:
Welcome, friend. Welcome.
There are almost as many ways of making someone feel welcome as there are people on our planet. To welcome another is to give that person and yourself a chance at a new connection, a new friendship, and maybe even new eyes through which to view the world.
Journey around the globe as A Hundred Thousand Welcomes introduces the word for “welcome” in fourteen languages to illuminate a universal message of hope and acceptance. Mary Lee Donovan’s spare text is brought to life by Lian Cho’s boisterous, richly detailed illustrations.
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