New Picture Book Tells a Grandmother's Journey from Cantonese Opera to Canada
Julia Hune-Brown's debut children's book, illustrated by Carmen Mok, follows a young girl who discovers her grandmother's past as a Cantonese opera performer in China and her escape from war to build a new life in North America.
A new picture book from author Julia Hune-Brown brings the story of a grandmother's remarkable life to young readers. «Poh Poh's Sword» follows a young girl named Julie who wakes one morning to the sound of Chinese opera thundering from the television while her grandmother, Poh Poh, practices sword dancing in the living room. The book, illustrated by Carmen Mok, is Hune-Brown's picture-book debut and grew out of a CBC Radio documentary she made about her own grandmother.
As Julie watches Poh Poh move through her sword routine, she is full of questions. The two share egg tarts in Chinatown, and Poh Poh begins to tell stories of her childhood in China. She grew up in a family that ran a tea house where Cantonese opera performers were frequent guests. When her father decided to stop paying her school fees, telling her that there was no use educating a girl because she would be married off soon enough, it was the opera performers who stepped in to nurture her. They became her teachers, offering her an education and a path she had not imagined.
Poh Poh eventually joined the performers on stage after intensive training with her sword. As a performer, she recalls, she could be «commanding, brave, and bold — things I could not be in my real life.» That boldness carried her far. She traveled to the other side of the world, escaping what she describes as «sky demons dropping bombs» during wartime. Safe from the conflict, she built a new life in Gun San, a name many Cantonese people used to refer to North America. That life eventually made it possible for Julie to «learn to read and write and dance and sing and dream.»
The book is rooted in Hune-Brown's own family history. Her CBC Radio documentary about her grandmother provided the foundation for the story, which she tells with warmth and affection. The narrative moves between present-day moments of Julie and Poh Poh together and the past, when Poh Poh was a young woman finding her voice on stage. The contrast between the restrictions placed on her as a girl in China and the freedom she found as a performer gives the story its emotional weight.
Carmen Mok's illustrations, rendered in pencil, watercolor, and Procreate, extend the text with details that reward close attention. Family photographs appear in the artwork, along with favorite ducks — both plushy and real — and recognizable scenes of Toronto. These touches ground the story in a specific place and family while keeping the focus on the universal bond between a grandchild and grandparent.
«Poh Poh's Sword» is a picture book about memory, migration, and the unexpected ways that art can open doors. It introduces young readers to Cantonese opera and to a chapter of history that many families carry quietly across generations. By centering Julie's curiosity and Poh Poh's willingness to share her past, the book shows how stories passed down within a family can connect children to a wider world of culture and resilience.
