Will I love Gibberish?

Gibberish is one of those brilliant picture books that couldn’t be made any other way.

The combination of words, symbols, and multiple art styles perfectly tells the story of an immigrant child’s acclimation to an English-speaking classroom. At first, the English words are all written in symbols, which read as gibberish, and those speaking them are depicted as old-timey cartoon characters.

As the child begins to understand, the symbols slowly transition to letters, and the characters gradually merge with the style of the rest of the book. It is so clever, so emotional, and so simple for even the youngest… show more.

I love Gibberish for the brilliant way that Voh portrays how it feels to be the new kid at school, in a new country, with a new language. It’s a familiar story arc but told in such a unique way! Voh’s use of speech bubbles and emojis to represent the new language as gibberish is such a powerful tool to convey the confusion of the unfamiliar. I love how easily children relate to the text and the images—and in so doing, connect with the new kid. Masterfully done, I highly recommend this!