You may remember Regina Linke from Big Enough, a 2025 S&P Award winner about a boy whose confidence grows through his encounters with an ox. Using contemporary Chinese gongbi painting, an ancient form of brush painting that depicts narrative subjects in colorful high detail, Linke creates stories evocative of East Asian folktales and philosophy.
In this new book for four-to-six-year-old readers, Linke brings back Ah-Fu, the imaginative boy from Big Enough. On a beautiful day when Ah-Fu "felt as though he could do anything," his kite gets stuck in tree branches, high enough that he cannot retrieve it by himself. We're then treated to a chain of encounters in which, seeking help, Ah-Fu becomes the helper, in spite of his kite still being stuck. In each case, he receives a small reward or bit of information, and when these come full circle, his "ah ha" moment is a wonder to behold.
"It can be very tempting," Linke has written, "to just create what people are willing to pay for ... but I think that's also a race to the bottom." Once again she has created art that captures village life so exquisitely that we wish many of her illustrations were murals on our walls. Her artistry does indeed raise the bar, and her dedication of the book tells us how we can carry forward what she does: "To you, who may ask how you can help. Life will always present a chance to help that only you can fulfill. May you answer that call and be blessed in return."
