  | Just one gift Author: Park, Linda Sue | |
| Price: $23.28 | ||
Summary:
Ms. Chang's first-period Language Arts class has a lively classroom discussion full of diverse voices told through poems. Some students share their responses out loud while others put their responses in private journal entries to answer Ms. Chang's assignment question: "If you could give someone special in your life a present--just one gift--who would you choose, and what would it be?"
| Illustrator: | Sae-Heng, Robert |
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (03/15/26)
School Library Journal (03/01/26)
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (00/04/26)
Full Text Reviews:
Other - 02/02/2026 This slim collection of poems, a companion to Park and Sae-Heng’s previous collaboration The One Thing You’d Save, both inspired by Korean sijo verse, invites readers to reflect deeply about the needs and desires of people in their lives. After drawing from a hat the word family, friend, or a question mark that represents "other," Ms. Chang’s students must choose someone they know who fits in that category. Told to consider "if you could give that person just one gift, what would it be?" the youth mut then pick something that the person has never asked for. Following initial confusion, the children brainstorm: a yard for a plant-loving dad, a vacation for a couple who owns a 24-hour convenience store, plane tickets for a grandparent to visit their grandchild in Nepal, and-in a private journal entry-a promise to support an older sister who recently confided in the writer that she "likes likes" girls. While the racially diverse characters’ individual voices aren’t often distinct, the loose sijo format makes each page approachable, creating an easy-to-digest, poignant presentation that effectively engages readers. Final artwork not seen by PW. Ages 8-12. (Apr.) - Copyright 2026
School Library Journal - 03/01/2026 Gr 3–7—Park offers a deceptively simple classroom premise that unfolds into a deeply humane exploration of gratitude, connection, and moral imagination. Centered on a teacher's invitation to consider giving "just one gift" to a family member, a friend, or a "question mark" person (someone who exists on the margins of the students' daily lives), the book reveals how intentional acts of noticing can reshape how young people understand community and themselves. What makes this text especially powerful is its refusal to sentimentalize generosity. The students' reflections span joy, grief, longing, and ethical uncertainty, engaging with illness, immigration and separation, poverty, loss, queerness, loneliness, and quiet acts of care that often go unseen. Park treats these moments with remarkable restraint and respect, trusting readers to sit with complexity rather than rushing toward easy resolution. The hybrid narrative structure, combining verse, classroom dialogue, and reflective questions, creates an accessible, conversational text that allows many voices to emerge and positions the classroom as a microcosm of empathy and civic life. While this structure may benefit from guided discussion to connect individual stories to the book's larger themes, it ultimately deepens engagement. VERDICT An exceptional read-aloud or anchor text for upper elementary and middle grade readers, inviting sustained conversations about gratitude, ethical decision-making, and the moral significance of paying attention to others.—Tracey Hodges - Copyright 2026 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
