Books by Muon Thi Van
I Love You Because I Love You
by Muon Thi Van
Author Muợn Thị Văn and Stonewall Book Award-winning artist Jessica Love detail all the big and small reasons why we love the people we do within a call-and-response picture book that features families across the spectrum.
“I love you because you tell the best stories.
Because I love you, my best story is you.”
What are all the big and small reasons why we love the people we do? And what does it look like when we voice it out loud?
To be read aloud by one or even two people, this affirming prose demonstrates that love is a dialogue. Love is complex. Love is utterly simple.
This is what love looks like.
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Wishes
by Georges Perec, Muon Thi Van
An arresting, poetic journey and a moving reflection on immigration, family, and home, from an acclaimed creative team.
Wishes tells the powerful, honest story about one Vietnamese family's search for a new home on the other side of the world, and the long-lasting and powerful impact that makes on one of the youngest members of the family. Inspired by actual events in the author's life, this is a narrative that is both timely and timeless. Told through the eyes of a young girl, the story chronicles a family's difficult and powerful journey to pack up what they can carry and to leave their world behind, traveling to a new and unknown place in a crowded boat. With sparse, poetic, and lyrical text from acclaimed author Mượn Thị Văn, thoughtful back matter about the author's connection to the story, and luminous, stunning illustrations from Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree Victo Ngai, Wishes tells a powerful and timely story in a gentle and approachable way for young children and their families.
Wishes is a must-have book for every child's bookshelf.
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Wishes
by Georges Perec, Muon Thi Van
Twelve years of Georges Perec’s annual pamphlets filled with homophonic wordplay
“In the beginning was the pun,” Samuel Beckett once wrote. And so it was that Georges Perec brought the good word to his friends and acquaintances on a yearly basis, as an expression of his best wishes for the New Year. Wishes gathers together these ten pamphlets of homophonic wordplay that Perec sent out from 1970 until his death in 1982, printed at his own expense in limited quantities. This paean to the pun consists of a series of short prose pieces, each concluding with a list of the everyday bits of language lying at their root. English proverbs, Latin phrases, the names of musicians, filmmakers, novelists and book titles are all fodder for Perec’s homophonic translations: John Coltrane turns into an anecdote about a wanderer with a severe ring around the collar; Antonioni’s first movie transforms into a prophecy of a murderous holiday; the phrase “All’s well that ends well” becomes a pregnant cow named Alice hailed by a drunk Satan; and Maurice Ravel proves to be a warning against corpses with a predilection for root vegetables.
These texts and their marriage of sound to meaning present a challenge to any translation, and bring into stark relief the choices translators are often forced to make. This English edition sidesteps such choices, offering two alternate translations: a traditional one focused on the literal content of Perec’s texts, and another focused on their formal phonological play.
Georges Perec (1936–82) was a French novelist, essayist and filmmaker whose linguistic talents ranged from fiction to crossword puzzles to palindromes. Winner of the prix Renaudot in 1965 for his first novel, Things, and the prix Médicis in 1978 for his most acclaimed novel, Life A User’s Manual, Perec was also a member of Oulipo.
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$18.99
One Is a Lot (Except When It's Not)
by Muon Thi Van
2 is a little. 0 is nothing. 1 is not enough. Well, sometimes ... 1 sun is a lot. 1 dog is a lot. 2 can even be too much. And when it comes to rain clouds, 0 is perfect. It's curious, but true. It all depends on what you're counting!
Bestselling and critically acclaimed author Mượn Thị Văn offers an innovative and thought-provoking look at the question, How many is enough? Simple page by simple page, young readers are shown examples of how, when counting things, the smallest numbers --- 0, 1 and 2 --- can mean a little, a lot or just the right amount. With its playful spirit and lyrical text, this unique, philosophical picture book promotes critical thinking, observation and discussion, even among the youngest children, and introduces a new way to appreciate numbers. Full of energy and humor, Pierre Pratt's illustrations tell a story within the story that adds a separate narrative layer to the spare text.
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The Most Terrible of All
by Muon Thi Van
A little monster discovers that true terribleness can come in a very tiny package in this bold, funny exploration of sibling rivalry.
Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who’s the most terrible one of all?
Every morning, Smugg’s magic mirror tells him that he’s the most terrible monster there is. Until one day, when the mirror tells him there’s an even worse monster, right next door! More terrible than Smugg? How can that be?
When Smugg marches next door, he learns that his neighbors have a new baby. She doesn’t look so bad—after all, she’s tiny. Smugg is sure he can be more terrible than she is. But the little beast is just getting started. She writes on the walls, devours the books, and—oh no!—she won’t stop crying. But the worst part is that she just might be getting attached to Smugg himself! He wouldn’t want a terrible tiny baby clinging to him…would he?
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Clever Little Witch
by Muon Thi Van
Magical mayhem and hilarity ensue when a clever little witch tries to turn her baby brother into a goldfish in this funny and imaginative picture book about sibling rivalry.
Little Linh is the cleverest little witch on Mãi Mãi island. She has everything she could need: a trusty broomstick, a powerful spell book, and a magical pet mouse. She also has a new brother named Baby Phu, and she does not like him one bit. He crashes her broomstick, eats pages out of her spell book, and keeps her up all night. Little Linh tried giving Baby Phu away, but nobody will take him, not even the Orphanage for Lost and Magical Creatures.
So, she’ll just have to try something else…like turning him into a goldfish. The only problem is, Baby Phu ate the second half of the spell. Still, there’s a reason Little Linh is the cleverest little witch. She can guess the second half of the spell…but it might take a few tries.
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