Amy Wu and the warm welcome by Kat Zhang, illustrated by Charlene Chua

 Amy Wu is a delightful character and in her previous adventures has tackled perfectionism and dumplings and finding her own identity as an Asian-American child. In her latest book, she welcomes a new friend to school and learns that being welcoming can mean different things.

Amy Wu's intimate classroom of five children is expanded to include a sixth when her teacher introduces Lin, a recent immigrant from China. Amy and the other children welcome him, but he doesn't say a single word all day long; not responding to Amy's invitation to her dumpling party, joining in their imaginative play, or speaking up at show-and-tell. But Amy notices that when his family picks him up he becomes animated, chattering in his native language to his sister and father.

With the help of her family, Amy sets in motion a plan to really welcome Lin at her dumpling party, creating a banner with Chinese words and practicing them with her grandmother's help. But even with practice, when everyone arrives she just can't bring herself to say the words out loud. She joins in the dumpling party and Lin's quiet kindness encourages her until, at the end of the party, she is ready to present her banner and say "huan ying ni" and make Lin welcome in his own language.

A final spread shows Lin happily joining his new classmates in their game, followed by an activity designed to welcome new students to school or your home. An author note talks about her experience as a bilingual child and the difference it makes to welcome people in their own culture and language.

Chua's bright and colorful pictures show cheerful Amy, her diverse classmates, including different skin tones and a child wearing a hearing aid, and Amy's cartoon-cute white kitten. I didn't like this title quite as much as the two previous titles, both of which I think translate more easily to classroom or library activities, creating your own dumplings and/or dragons, but the welcome banner is a nice idea. I think this one would work well with a little more gatekeeping to guide kids into thinking about their experiences and other's feelings in moving to a new place, especially with a different language.

Verdict: I wouldn't purchase this title on its own, but make sure you have all three and recommend them to classroom teachers to initiate simple discussions on diversity and social-emotional learning for younger children.

ISBN: 9781534497351; Published May 2022 by Simon & Schuster; Review copy provided by publisher; Donated to the library